


Inimitable

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Black Panther (2018), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alpha T'Challa (Marvel), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Awesome T'Challa (Marvel), Cultural Differences, I Don't Even Know, Insecure Tony, M/M, Omega Tony Stark, Protective T'Challa (Marvel), Sweet T'Challa (Marvel), Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, we'll fuckin see where this goes bois
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-04-17 18:42:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 63,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14195289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Tony has absolutely no interest in this marriage but his mom seems to think this is a good idea. “I worked hard on finding someone you would actually get along with, Tony. I’m sure you will be happy,” she says.Happy with someone in some random foreign nation that he’s never met before? Yeah, he gives his mom an incredulous look for that. “Something tells me this isn’t going to end well, but it’s only the rest of my life,” he mumbles.*T’Challa isn’t exactly sure about this marriage but his father insisted and he maybe loves his father a little too much given that he agreed to this.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys have been following my Tumblr you know I've been confused on what I want to do next. This is literally none of the things I suggested but I was like 'hmm arranged marriage sounds good' and here we are. With ABO because why the hell not?

Tony has absolutely no interest in this marriage but his mom seems to think this is a good idea. “I worked hard on finding someone you would actually get along with, Tony. I’m sure you will be happy,” she says.

Happy with someone in some random foreign nation that he’s never met before? Yeah, he gives his mom an incredulous look for that. “Something tells me this isn’t going to end well, but it’s only the rest of my life,” he mumbles. He only has to spend his entire life with some random _guy_ , that’d been a shock, from Wakanda. The nation has been closed off for like… a ridiculously long time and now he was supposed to trust being in this country? He doesn’t even trust countries he’s spent a lot of time in- its not like omegas were treated very well basically anywhere. But hey, they were no longer regularly beaten or worse for not immediately following alpha’s instructions, what more could they want?

“Tony,” Maria says, “I did my research. T’Challa is a good match for you, you’ll get along quite well.” She looks like she believes that but Tony doesn’t, why would he? Its not like he’s ever really looked forward to being married off like he was a cow to be given away. He doesn’t care how polite T’Challa might be; he was still being used as a trading device. Its not like this was a marriage that developed out of anything but trade agreements and he personally doesn’t care for being a trading tool. He’s a damn _person_ , not a way to sign a contract.

“I’m being used as a way for America to get resources, mom, T’Challa could be the best person on this entire planet but that wouldn’t change how insulting this is.” If he could leave he would, but there weren’t many places that were inhabitable anymore. So with limited options he’s stuck with this because it was slightly better than just dying in a desert.

“We’re doing what we need to, Tony,” she says softly. “I’m trying to make this as painless for you as possible.”

He doesn’t actually doubt that. “If you really wanted to make this painless you wouldn’t allow me to be used as a _trade object_. What fucking century is this? So much for omegas having rights,” he says, rolling his eyes.

“Tony we all need to do our parts,” Maria says and he lets out a harsh laugh.

“And my part is to be some random guy’s trophy husband so America can try and get vibranium. Nice.” If he could help it, and he’s more than prepared to try his best, America wouldn’t get _any_ useful resource from Wakanda. That’s what they would get for deciding that he was an acceptable way to try and instill trade agreements.

*

T’Challa isn’t exactly sure about this marriage but his father insisted and he maybe loves his father a little too much given that he agreed to this. Shuri throws herself on his bed and lets out a long groan, “can you please get married fast, this corset is uncomfortable,” she tells him.

“I don’t care about your corset,” he says bluntly, ignoring the way she flipped him off. “I am about to marry a stranger from a foreign nation, Shuri. I don’t know what to expect. What if he hates me? What if I hate him? What if he’s racist?” he asks. That was not usually a concern of his but in this case it was pertinent.

Shuri shrugs, “if he’s racist we can make his murder look like an accident. And if he hates you he has good taste,” she says. He throws a scarf off his desk at her and makes an irritated noise when she catches it and throws it off his bed. “Seriously T’Challa, I’m sure you will figure this out. You’re alright at that,” she says.

High praise from her given that she usually spent most of her time insulting him. “And if I don’t figure this out?” he asks quietly.

“You have the rest of your life, I’m sure you will figure it out at some point. You have for _ever_ ,” she sing songs, laughing when he pales a little.

“Shuri,” he says, a little more serious this time.

She sighs, “T’Challa, you will be _fine_ ,” she assures him. “You’re a good man and you will make a great king. He is lucky to have you and he will know it,” she tells him.

So with this advice he leaves to go to his wedding ceremony and that’s about when he realizes that Shuri’s advice was awful. When he meets Tony he can see the resentment written clear across his features and the tightness in his body indicates further that he has no desire to be here. Behind Tony his father gives him a look, making a small gesture to speak with the man he was about to marry.

He steps forward and smiles, “I am T’Challa, Prince of Wakanda,” he says softly.

Tony- he knew his name because his father had told him- _glares_ at him. If looks could kill T’Challa would have been dead nine times before he hit the ground. “Tony, no fancy title,” he says back in a clipped tone. T’Challa looks over Tony’s head at his father with what he was _sure_ was a panicked look on this face and all his father does to help is raise an eyebrow and give Tony a pointed look.

“Technically you don’t get a fancy title here either,” he says and it’s clearly the wrong thing to say because Tony’s look manages to get _more_ poisonous. “What? I doubt your marrying me for my title,” he says, uncertain.

“I’m marrying you because you’re the least shitty prospect I have right now so instead of trying to be nice for the crowd fuck off and leave me be. I’m sure you have prince things to do,” he says, waving a hand at him to go away. He opens his mouth and considers saying something else to Tony, but then he turns and walks away instead. It doesn’t take long for his father to catch up and he sighs.

“I hope you won’t give up on being a king that easily,” T’Chaka says and T’Challa sighs.

“He wanted nothing to do with me, what did you want me to do? Force myself on him?” he asks.

T’Chaka recoils, “obviously not, T’Challa, but you could have attempted to find some kind of common ground with him. He’s been pulled from his home and shoved into an unfamiliar place with little knowledge of what life is like here. Of course he’s going to be unpleasant- if he wasn’t I would worry,” he says.

If he was pleasant T’Challa would be grateful, not worried. “How was I supposed to deal with that?” he asks half because he knows he’s being whiny and half because he’s genuinely curious about whether or not he was going to get advice here.

“How would you deal with a political disagreement?” he asks.

T’Challa gives him an unimpressed look because of _course_ he would answer with a riddle. “This is not a political situation, this is the beginning of a marriage,” he says.

T’Chaka sighs, turning to face T’Challa. “T’Challa, to him this _is_ politics. I told you to research America, if you don’t understand where he comes from you will not understand how to deal with him,” he says.

“Well reading about America angered me so I thought I’d wing it,” he says, earning a long, drawn out sigh from his father.

“Read, T’Challa. You have five hours before you are married,” he says, leaving T’Challa with that. Glancing back in Tony’s direction he earns nothing but more poisonous looks from the man. He would be beautiful, T’Challa notes, if he didn’t look so angry. His coloring was obviously not something he would find in Wakanda, but the striking contrast between his dark hair and eyes from his skin was a pretty combination. At least if he wasn’t glaring at T’Challa like he was hoping he’d drop dead any second now.

Movement to his left catches his eye so he looks over and finds Okoye there. “Well,” she says, giving Tony a _look_ , “he’s not hard on the eyes at least.”

He snorts, “at the moment I think that may be the only benefit to this whole thing. He hates me,” he says.

Okoye laughs, clapping him on the shoulder, “won’t last long. You managed to win Nakia over, I’m sure this one will be just as quick to find you endearing,” she says. T’Challa seriously doubts that mostly because Nakia never hated him, she just had goals that would and did conflict with their relationship.

*

Upon reading everything he could about America T’Challa has decided that the country was beautiful but deeply flawed. And given the distinct edge back in omega rights since the rest of the world went to hell he could see why Tony was so… upset. What he didn’t seem to know was that this was not at all normal in Wakanda and that his father had his motives. T’Challa didn’t like it, but he did understand it and he had been hoping to make the best of his father’s plans.

Regardless his reading has resulted in a plan to hopefully make him at least a little endeared to Tony but he needed his sister to pull it off. Shuri, however, is less than cooperative. “Why do I have to make you seem likable, make yourself seem likable,” she tells him.

“Have you read anything about American culture? They’re quite awful there,” he says. “They have strict hierarchies.”

“We have a monarchy, T’Challa, clearly we are guilty of the same crime,” she points out.

“All human societies have some kind of hierarchy, but America’s is heavily influenced by you’re A/B/O score. Apparently omegas are _lesser_ there, and having no idea what to expect here I can’t say I can blame him for his nerves. He’s quite brave for showing such a strong dislike though, in his culture he probably would have been hung or charged with witchcraft or something. They’re so backwards where he’s from.” But it would be helpful, he thinks, to show Tony that he would not be treated as lesser here. At least not because he was an omega- the problem here would be his foreign status. Some, like W’Kabi, thought that accepting foreigners meant dealing with all of their problems too and there were a lot of refugees these days. T’Challa didn’t necessarily agree, but he is hesitant to open the country to others- they’ve survived on secrecy and even his father thought to some extent that was necessary. That was why, as far as other nations knew, they had no more vibranium.

Shuri laughs, “witchcraft? You are so exaggerating. So what’s this go to do with me anyways?” she asks.

T’Challa squints at her a little, waiting for her to catch up but she doesn’t and he rolls his eyes. “Shuri, you are Wakanda’s technological leaders- you’re highly respected and an omega. Might gain a little trust if he knew that,” he says. Or he could hope anyways. Shuri looks like she has her doubts but he leads her to Tony’s room anyways, knocking gently when he gets to the door.

After a solid thirty seconds of no one opening he looks down at Shuri with what must be an amusing expression on his face because she starts laughing. “Can you let my brother in, I want to see you see you shrivel his ego up close and personal. It’ll make watching the wedding _so_ much more amusing,” she says to the door, cackling as she says it. T’Challa is deeply offended, really.

But the door does open and Tony glares out, “what?” he asks. T’Challa feels all ability to function leave his body but thankfully Shuri doesn’t feel as easily intimidated and grins.

“ _Wow_ , you really have a chip on your shoulder. I mean you’ve been handed the subpar sibling but he’s not _that_ bad,” she says, giving T’Challa a skeptical look.

“I would have preferred no siblings, thanks,” Tony says in a clipped tone. “I don’t even know why _I_ was the unlucky one,” he mumbles.

T’Challa wrinkles his nose, “to be fair one of the options was Justin Hammer and I would honestly rather marry one of the boarder tribes rhinos,” he says. That had been the only one he had been unfortunate enough to meet and after five minutes T’Challa told his father that if he picked that one he would throw himself off a cliff. Thankfully his father had agreed that Hammer was not a suitable choice for marriage. Or conversation. Or literally anything.

Tony lets out a small laugh and for a moment he doesn’t look murderous. It’s a good look on him and T’Challa smiles. When Tony notices he goes back to glowering but Shuri is unaffected, “I have no idea who that is and apparently I don’t want to,” she says, shrugging.

“You don’t,” Tony confirms and pulls back a little, looking over his shoulder at something. “I thought maybe my tech abilities were what made me desirable but whoever made that is smarter than me,” he says, opening the door a little wider and gesturing to the train going by outside his window. “Mag lev is _so_ not that advance in America.”

“Literally nothing is advanced in America,” T’Challa says in a disparaging tone.

Shuri laughs, “oh you should have _heard_ this one on the way here, on about witchcraft and hangings. You’d think he was talking about sixteenth century England or something,” Shuri says.

Tony frowns, “ _what_?”

“Yeah, he has misconceptions but don’t worry, he’s easy to train. Give him a biscuit and tell him he’s a good boy and he’s cooperative,” Shuri says, snickering.

“That is not true,” T’Challa says in his own defense but Tony laughs.

“I like you,” he says, opening the door a little wider so Shuri could step in. When T’Challa goes to move forward though he shuts the door in his face.

Well- he guessed it was a good try.

*

Shuri, a brilliant omega and a lead technological scientist that was _actually_ smarter than him. So maybe he misjudged Wakanda but that didn’t mean he wanted to get married or have anything to do with T’Challa. The cruel irony of it all? T’Challa was actually pretty close to his type- smart, well-dressed, attractive. There was probably more if he got to know his soon-to-be-husband but he has approximately zero interest in that. Shuri he liked, and gained access to her labs later, but T’Challa? Shuri could spend all day telling him about how polite Wakanda was to omegas, that didn’t mean T’Challa wouldn’t take advantage if he thought he could try and boss Tony around and that wasn’t happening.

When he steps onto the boat though T’Challa smiles at him, looking pleased to see him even though he’s been nothing but rude since they met. Oddly he seems to mostly react well to Tony but that made no sense and Tony has to wonder what else Wakanda had in store for him. Obviously he had a use to the country, he just had no idea what it was now that he’s discovered that Shuri definitely blows his talent out of the water. And she’s clearly a ray of sunshine too, so it wasn’t like anyone here wanted his company over hers. So what was going on here?

“You’re going to want to hold on to something,” T’Challa tells him gently but Tony mostly ignores that in favor of the dancing and chants because this was so not his idea of a wedding. T’Challa was similarly dressed to him though so the king, or maybe someone else, thought to try and make him somewhat more comfortable at least. Because the rest of this? Totally wild. Made him wonder what he hell he looked like to the locals all things considered and if it weren’t for the circumstances he’d ask.

“Why would I-” he starts to ask but those women in orange bounce their spears- he couldn’t believe these people carried fucking _spears_ \- off the boat and the noise it makes isn’t natural. Neither is the wave that flows out from the boat and then things start to shake. T’Challa reaches out to steady him when he nearly falls over but he shakes T’Challa off immediately.

“Tony,” he says softly but he shakes his head.

“Don’t,” he says back. He didn’t need T’Challa and he didn’t want his help.

*

Tony isn’t any more comfortable now than he was in the morning, T’Challa can see that pretty clearly. He did sneak a few glances to Shuri throughout the ceremony though so he at least felt comfortable with someone. It wasn’t a lot but it was a start. When they get to the end part though T’Challa freezes. A kiss wasn’t part of Wakandan traditions but the intent was to blend some things Tony was familiar with into the ceremony in an attempt to make him more comfortable.

From the looks on his face this was not one of the things he would have chosen from an American wedding. He gives a somewhat panicked look to T’Challa and he shakes his head slightly. He was not going to kiss someone who had no interest in it- aside from the obvious moral dilemma he had no idea what a kiss was doing in a wedding ceremony anyways. To him the idea was foreign and strange. Tony freezes too, looks around for a moment before he sighs and leans forward, pressing a kiss to T’Challa’s lips. When he pulls away he still looks uncomfortable and T’Challa clenches his jaw.

*

He supposes it was predictable, but Tony takes off pretty much immediately after the ceremony, which makes T’Challa’s job a whole lot harder. But he does find him and when he does he gives him an unimpressed look. Tony looks annoyed, “what, I did what you wanted,” he says and T’Challa shakes his head.

“No, you didn’t. You were obviously uncomfortable with that kiss,” he says.

“So what, I don’t have a choice,” Tony tells him, rolling his eyes.

T’Challa shakes his head, “yes you do. This isn’t some kind of punishment Tony and I have no desire to kiss people who have no interest in it. That is not a Wakandan tradition and I am a prince. You could have- _should_ have- said no and I easily could have waived it away. The people probably would have been happy to see me rid a royal wedding of a foreign practice; there was no real pressure on you. Next time say something,” he tells him.

Tony’s shoulders droop a little and he sighs. “How much freedom do I have here?” he asks bluntly.

It takes work for him to not react as badly as he wanted because that was a downright horrifying statement. “I have no desire to be a prison keeper, Tony. I don’t want to force you into anything I can help. I understand you’ve been handed an unpleasant situation here, but I don’t want to make it worse so next time you don’t want to do something tell me. I’ll do what I can to get you out of it- as a prince that probably won’t be much work.”

“Thanks,” Tony tells him in a bitter, harsh tone. Like he was pissed off that he had to thank T’Challa for affording him basic freedoms. From his point of view T’Challa supposed that’s exactly what he just did and he sighs. Convincing Tony that he had no desire to wield his position or their marriage over his head was not going to be an easy task, but convincing him was necessary nonetheless.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm excited, I got my new glasses today! The arms are a touch too long but the frames themselves look good so there's that :)

Tony stays in his room watching the trains go by. He still has no idea how they work and he’s run the numbers several times and still couldn’t figure it out. He’s pretty sure he has the freedom to leave the room he’s in but he has no real desire to do anything here. Wakanda, what little he’s seen of it, is beautiful but the land was a prison to him. Being pretty doesn’t endear it much to him. It takes a long, _long_ time for someone to knock on the door and when it finally happens he sighs and pulls himself from the window seat and drags his ass to the door. When he opens it he’s unsurprised to find T’Challa there. “What do you want?” he asks, getting straight to the point.

T’Challa looks him over and he sees his hand twitch, like he’s thinking of lifting it, but he drops it before that happens. “You look exhausted,” he says and his hand twitches again but he leaves it at his side.

“I haven’t slept in awhile,” Tony says honestly. Barely any sleep since he left his country, which he full well knows isn’t a good thing but he can’t bring himself to sleep either.

For a long moment T’Challa considers him before he sighs. “Your room is prepared in our home,” he says, “I’m here to bring you to it.”

“ _Your_ home,” Tony corrects, “I’m just living in it.”

If he didn’t know any better he’d say T’Challa was hurt by the comment. Even if he is, by chance, upset by it Tony doesn’t care. “I would like it to be your home too,” he says softly.

“Not happening. But I might as well get this over with,” he mumbles.

T’Challa lets out a soft sigh, “alright, get your things. It’s a bit of a drive,” he tells him.

Tony’s shoulders slump further and he shuts the door, going back into the room he was now apparently leaving and he gathers his stuff. All of it fit in a single suitcase, which was almost more insulting than being sold off like a cow. His entire life is now in a _bag_. It doesn’t take him nearly as long as he’d like it to but he gets his stuff together and opens the door again, finding T’Challa standing there still. He looks Tony over and, to his surprise, gives Tony a sad look but there’s no pity there. For that Tony is thankful because he’s always hated pity. T’Challa goes to take his bag and he steps back, unwilling to release what little he has left to T’Challa and he sighs again, pulling his hand away from Tony.

“Follow me,” he says softly.

*

He hadn’t been looking forward to the ride but Shuri ended up being there, which was exciting because he had a bunch of questions she was nice enough to answer. Her bright personality made the trip less heinous. When he gets to the house though, and that was putting it liberally considering the sheer _scale_ of the building, things take a trip down hill. First off he gets stuck with T’Challa again and someone has run off with his stuff so his already awful mood gets worse.

“It will be in your room likely by the time we get there,” T’Challa tells him but all he gets in response is a chilly glare. It wasn’t like Tony wanted much here; just to carry his own damn bag and apparently he couldn’t even get _that_. Tony says nothing, just follows T’Challa through the maze of a house until they finally get to a room. T’Challa opens the door and Tony at least finds his bag on the bed so he goes to it, checking for any signs of tampering not that he thinks he’d find any. He doubts the Wakandan guard is stupid enough to leave evidence anyways.

“My room is technically next to yours, we share a bathroom. I thought you might be more confortable with your own space,” T’Challa tells him in a soft tone. Tony doesn’t respond. Instead he walks over to the porch that sits to his left, curious about the trees that sat just beyond the reach of the structure. The forest was beautiful though it made his room significantly darker. Fitting really.

“You mother said you have some sleep issues. I thought the tree cover might help a little with the morning sun,” T’Challa explains. Well isn’t that just fucking helpful. At least he wasn’t going out of his way to be horribly unlikable but Tony wasn’t buying the act either. Assholes weren’t assholes right off the bat; they lulled you into things a little _then_ acted like they owned you.

“Can I get some time to explore on my own?” he asks, voice softer than he’s ever heard it before. From disuse, he suspects. Normally he didn’t sound even remotely that demure and he decides he doesn’t like the change much.

T’Challa quickly nods, “of course. I’ll be next door, through the bathroom,” he reminds Tony. He doesn’t even bother to hide his eye roll as he turns back to face the trees. They probably had more interesting stories to tell anyways. He hears that T’Challa lingers for a few moments before he leaves, exhaling softly as he goes. As soon as the door clicks shut Tony feels the tension leave his body and he sighs, walking out on to the porch and he looks around. The trees were much healthier than he was used to seeing, which is curious, but he suspects this place has a library so he’ll go hunting for it later. Just because he has no interest in T’Challa doesn’t mean he isn’t curious about how Wakanda managed to survive in ways no one else did. Near everyone else was drastically affected by the harsh weather changes but Wakanda? From what he’s seen the country didn’t seem to suffer at all.

He reaches out and feels the leaves of the closest tree, which requires him to lean a little. They’re waxy and healthy in a way Tony has never felt before, which is interesting. He wonders what the wild life around here looks like too, if the animals fared as well as everything else seemed to. He’s considering the possibilities of how any of this was possible when someone knocks on his door. For someone who seemed so accommodating T’Challa sure was pressing his fucking luck but he goes to the door anyways, pulling it open with some pointed barbs prepared but he finds Shuri behind the door instead of T’Challa.

“Oh, hey,” he says, thrown off guard by her presence.

She grins, “move aside, I have food and honestly after researching what Americans eat I’m excited to expose you to real food,” she says, happily walking into his room. She makes it seem much brighter than it is with little more than her bright personality and smile. If T’Challa had his sister’s personality maybe this wouldn’t be so damn painful for him.

“American food is good, don’t knock it,” he says in his country’s defense. The only defense it was about to get from him, but still. He’s fond of American foods and he had his doubts about food here. Its not like he’s eaten much, mostly just some fruits that he recognized, and he wasn’t much willing to chance trying random foods here.

“Americans over salt everything and use no spices. Trust me, Wakandan food will open your eyes to the possibilities,” Shuri tells him, lifting the bag in her hand as if this demonstrated her point.

“No offense but I don’t really trust the food,” he says, giving the bag she’s holding a skeptical look.

Shuri looks offended nonetheless but lets it pass. “You’re just saying that because you have no idea what you’re missing. Plus why would we poison you? That’s just a waste of time and resources,” she says.

Tony squints, “is that supposed to make me feel better?” he asks.

“I mean a little. Come on, you need food and I brought the best of what Wakanda has to offer- it would be rude to say no,” she tells him but her tone is playful so it seems clear at least to him that she doesn’t actually believe that.

“If you can produce something that tastes better than a cheese burger I’ll be impressed,” he says knowing full well that that isn’t going to happen. It wasn’t like he got to eat the food often either- omegas were expected to remain extra healthy and then for some stupid reason they were expected to keep their families healthy too. Stupid if you ask him- its not his responsibility to look after anyone’s health but his own and if some random alpha in his general vicinity wanted to eat the hell out of seven packs of bacon Tony would join them. Natasha used to be nice enough to regularly sneak him food that didn’t taste like ass and he’s going to miss that.

“Cheese burger,” Shuri mumbles. “America has done a _disservice_ to you,” she says. “Here, try this.” She hands him a dish from her bag that sort of looked like rice but he isn’t entirely sure what that is.

“Uh, what am I eating?” he asks.

“Just try it,” Shuri tells him. He gives her a skeptical look and she sighs, “I don’t know how to translate the food name into English and you don’t have comparable foods where you’re from so I don’t know how to describe it. Just eat it and tell me if you like it.”

He gives the food one more skeptical look and sighs, “um. Fine I guess, got a utensil in that bag of yours?” he asks. Shuri stares at the bag for a solid ten second before she throws her head back and lets out a loud groan.

“I knew I was forgetting something. I’ll be back,” she tells him, walking back out the door. He watches her go and stares after the half open door for a few moments before shrugging and opening the container the food is in. The first thing that he notices is that the food smells fantastic, the second thing he notices is his nose hair burning from the spice in there. Well okay, looks like he was going to have to readjust and thankfully he’s always had a secret fondness for spicy foods. Not that he ate them all that often but still.

It takes a few more moments for him to get curious enough to look through the rest of the food but when he does he finds that it all smells pleasant and only half of it smelled spicy. His stomach growls, reminding him that it’s been awhile since he’s eaten- too long probably but eating hasn’t exactly been his priority lately. He waits a few more moments before he finally eyes up what looked like some kind of meat and picks it up, sniffing it again before shrugging and deciding what the hell- might as well take a risk.

It’s fucking worth it too. He might not have any idea what he’s eating but it tasted fantastic- almost sweet but with a spicy undertone that worked with whatever kind of meat it was. Shuri walks in as he sticks the last of it in his mouth and groans, “that was the rest of it, wasn’t it? That’s my favorite,” she mumbles, eying the dish he just cleaned out.

“In my defense I was starving,” he says.

Shuri rolls her eyes, “ _excuses_ ,” she says fondly. “Here, try that,” she tells him, pointing at the dish she initially sent his way after handing him a fork. He takes the utensil from her and picks up the food, giving it a weary eye before he stabs at it and sticks it in his mouth. It’s worth it because that tasted fantastic too.

“Okay, so maybe you had a point with the food,” he mumbles around the two more heaping piles of food he just stuffed in his mouth.

“Told you, I’m offended you even doubted me! _Rude_ ,” she says, shaking her head. “And after this I will show you my lab. I can’t believe no one thought ‘hey, maybe he’s isolated himself in his room because he has no idea where to go and the people _don’t speak English_ ’. I pride my country on its intelligence and I don’t like when Wakanda proves me wrong by doing stupid things. So after this my lab- there’s some fun toys in there, we can probably blow something up,” she says excitedly.

*

T’Challa resents that Tony has taken a clear liking to Shuri but she did get him to eat and got him out of his room. And he asked her about the library, which he wouldn’t have thought would serve Tony well but it turns out he prepared for the language barrier and made a device that translated language that Shuri tells him is surprisingly accurate.

“He’s not as smart as me,” she says, “but he learns much faster than I do. Seriously, its shocking how fast he understands new concepts once it clicks.” She’s impressed, T’Challa can tell, and probably because she didn’t often meet someone who could give her any kind of competition in intelligence. T’Challa did sometimes, but his specialty was travel methods. Shuri was good, but he figured out how to stabilize the vibranium so it could move at the speeds they were looking for, and then Shuri made all his calculations better, cleaned them up, and made them useful.

“Do you think… is he happy there, in your lab?” he asks. Tony doesn’t seem to be happy anywhere at the moment and T’Challa doesn’t want that for him. No one deserves to be as miserable as Tony is at the moment.

She shrugs, “it’s the happiest I’ve seen him. He’s clearly more at home with technology than us. He mentioned something about an AI he had built in America but for some reason he has no access to it now? I suspect he could get it back once he figures out how to use Wakandan systems, and that won’t take long, but I have to wonder exactly how much he’s leaving behind.”

A lot, T’Challa guesses, if his protective nature over what little he had in his bag was any indication. It was heartbreaking to watch but he could do little about it at the moment, not when Tony wanted nothing to do with him. “I don’t know, but I hope to make it easier,” he says.

“Naïve,” Shuri tells him, shaking her head. “If you had to leave Wakanda behind you would not cope well,” she points out.

“I’m not certain that’s comparable,” he says. “Our nation as been isolated for centuries- leaving with the potential of never coming back would mean something totally different to me than it would to someone who has had more freedom in coming and going from their country. But your point is made nonetheless. Maybe… maybe I should take him back; it might help him adjust if he knows he isn’t trapped here. It would make a suitable honeymoon- its some kind of American thing they do after marriage. We would call it a vacation but Americans are dramatic.” What separated the vacation that would happen after or before, or even long after, a wedding he has no idea. They were all the same to him but perhaps Americans had something that made it different and he was missing a cultural cue or something.

Shuri snorts loudly and rudely, “yeah, he’s not going anywhere with you. He _really_ doesn’t like you, which I would find rude if he didn’t drop small hints of how he was treated in America. They think some _weird_ things about omegas and I think he needs convincing that we are not like _that_ ,” she says, distaste evident in her tone. T’Challa clenches his jaw, wishing that he could just explain that himself but he already knows from Tony’s previous reactions that he will not allow that. It irritates him that he is now paying the price for some other country’s backwards mistakes and assumptions about Tony’s biology but there is little to do about it now except work through it.

“Do you think you can convince him that we are not America? Because he refuses to be around me for long,” he says. The most he’s seen of Tony were quick snatches of him in the hallways with books, and once they had run into each other in their shares bathroom but Tony quickly made himself scarce after that.

“I don’t know, T’Challa. All I know is that Tony is miserable and he hates it here and there isn’t much to be done about that.” She looks as upset as he feels but T’Challa shakes his head. There is something to be done; they just haven’t found it yet and they will eventually because he simply cannot in good conscience let someone suffer the way Tony has been. Shuri clearly thinks he’s in over his head and maybe she’s right, if he’s honest with himself she probably is, but Tony needs help adjusting to his new life, and support being here and his being difficult is not going to deter T’Challa from ensuring that Tony is well cared for.

Eventually Shuri goes back to her lab and he decides to visit Bast’s temple for some kind of guidance on what to do here. There must be something, he reasons, to help Tony in some way. The temple is stunning though less colorful than the rest of the country’s brightly patterned clothing and walls. Bast is a goddess that leads souls to the next life, after all, though if you’re particularly special she will council you in life too. Its rare that it happens and as next in line to the Throne T’Challa knows he is expected to have a connection to the goddess but he’s never felt more or less special than anyone else around him. Zuri claims he’s special, that Bast is looking down on him but he’s never felt sure of that. That doesn’t mean he is unwilling to come to the goddess for help though.

He reaches out to the large statue in the center of the room, carefully brushing the large panther’s stone nose. “I don’t know what to do,” he admits to the statue, “I don’t know _what_ I can do.” Bast doesn’t speak or do much of anything really but that is not exactly unexpected so he sighs, taking a step back from the statue and hoping for some kind of sign.

“I thought Bast was an Egyptian god,” a voice says from behind him and T’Challa turns to find Tony there, giving the statue a skeptical look. He quickly gives Bast a grateful look, surprised that he actually _did_ receive a sign.

“Gods migrate. Sekhmet also has Egyptian roots,” he says though the function of the god here is different than in Egypt.

Tony considers the statue for a moment and T’Challa notices he moves no closer, likely because he is standing right next to it. “I see a lot of panther stuff around your house, any of that connected to Bast or am I noticing something else?” he asks.

T’Challa smiles, “put simply yes. Bast has blessed the royal line- descendants of Bashenga, the first Black Panther and king of Wakanda. The panther imagery you see is of all the past Black Panthers- kings of Wakanda who are connected to Bast, but not exactly religious figureheads. Those would be the shamans, like Zuri,” he says, remembering too late that Tony likely has no idea who Zuri is

“The guy in purple, right?” he asks and T’Challa nods, surprised that Tony had picked that up. Tony considers the statue again, eyes flicking back to T’Challa for a half a second and he watches as Tony considers leaving. He doesn’t exactly want to press his luck but T’Challa hopes that he doesn’t go.

He doesn’t. Curiosity must get the best of him because he wanders a little closer to the statue, still keeping his distance from T’Challa. “Black Panther, what does that mean exactly?” he asks.

He opens his mouth and then closes it, realizing that not once in his life has he ever been asked to explain the Black Panther to someone who doesn’t already have some kind of working knowledge of his culture. “Um…” he says, frowning a little. “Black Panther is… uh, the protector of Wakanda, a warrior for the nation. It is the job of the Black Panther to ensure that the country is safe and running smoothly, I guess.” That was, bar none, the _worst_ explanation he has ever heard of what the Black Panther does so when Tony looks confused he doesn’t blame him.

“But the Black Panther is the king, is the Black Panther always the king or can someone else uh… take that role?” he asks.

T’Challa shakes his head, “Black Panther is always the king- the duties of the Black Panther tie in with the political and social responsibilities of our leaders.”

“And this is… connected to Bast somehow?” Tony asks, squinting.

“Yes. The first Black Panther, Bashenga, was led to the heart shaped herb by Bast and it granted him powers that led to him becoming the first king of Wakanda,” he says.

Tony’s face scrunches on confusion, “the heart _what_? And what- what?” he asks, frowning as he tries and fails to understand T’Challa’s explanation. He sighs and Tony gives him a dirty look, “its not my fault your explanations make no sense,” he snaps and T’Challa sighs again.

“I know. It’s just that I have never had to explain this to someone who doesn’t already have some kind of knowledge of our traditions. Let me start from the beginning. There were six tribes in Wakanda and they did not live in peace. War was abundant because they were fighting over a mountain of a metal unlike anything else anyone had ever seen,” he says and Tony nods.

“Vibranium,” he says and T’Challa nods.

“Yes. This went on for some time before a warrior shaman Bashenga received a vision from Bast, who led him to the heart shaped herb and he was granted superhuman powers after ingesting it. With his new power he returned to the rest of Wakanda and put an end to the wars and united the tribes with the exception of the Jabari. They disagreed with the use of vibranium and separated themselves in the mountain regions- they’re still there and still oppose vibranuim use. But Bashenga became the first king and Black Panther- the protector of our nation and from there the mantel was passed down from generation to generation until it got to my father. I am in line to be the next Black Panther,” he explains.

“Is this heart shaped herb thing real?” he asks, “or part of the myth.”

 _Myth_. It’s an offensive way to describe the story but T’Challa lets the comment pass for now. At the moment he needs to pick his battles and he can pick that one later. “The herb is real, but the affects are exaggerated. Technically it does help boost the immune system but the affect we use it for now is visiting the green space- the afterlife. If you ingest the herb it allows you to communicate with all the past Black Panthers.” Its not necessarily something he believes in himself, but that was the story behind the Black Panther and the herb and his father swears its all true. In his father’s defense he’s actually tried the herb while T’Challa has no frame of reference for it.

Tony gives him a _look_ like he’s crazy for suggesting such things and T’Challa bites his tongue on reminding him that America’s religious beliefs were no less insane sounding. Wakanda’s gods at least weren’t arrogant enough to proclaim themselves perfect, all-powerful, and omniscient. Instead they were more realistic gods that made mistakes and sometimes had to correct where they chose to put their faith and power. But he keeps his mouth shut for the time being.

“Yeah, this is why I’m an atheist. Religions always sound bat shit nuts no matter where they’re from,” Tony mumbles. “So like, the Black Panther thing- I take it there’s some kind of uh… clothing or whatever to go with the title? That’s what all the imagery suggests,” he says.

Atheist, well that explains his reactions though they are no less offensive. “First of all my religion is _not_ bat shit nuts, its just different than what you know. And second, yes Black Panther has a specific ceremonial outfit, why?” he asks.

Tony pinches the bridge of his nose, “Jesus fuck I married a furry,” he mumbles. “Yeah, you know what- that’s enough curiosity for me for the day, bye,” he says, giving T’Challa a halfhearted wave before he leaves. T’Challa frowns after him before he turns to Bast again.

“Bast, this is not what I had in mind. And I don’t even know what a furry is,” he tells the goddess.

He had been hoping to _help_ things along, not whatever it is that just transpired. Something tells him that explaining the origins of the Black Panther is not going to help his ability to connect with Tony any, especially when he’s been accused of being whatever a furry is. Bast does not respond and T’Challa resents that, really, because he has no idea what to do now and her attempts to help did not go well.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gunna wait a day or two more before posting this but I have poor self control so here's the next chapter!

Tony mostly goes back to hiding in his room because he prefers that to most other activities. It doesn’t help that most of the people here speak a language he doesn’t understand, obviously, but it serves to keep him on the outside of life here. He’s picked up a few words from Shuri, none of them very fitting for a prince’s husband, but other than that he has no idea what the hell is going on anyways so he feels no strong need to leave his space. Shuri accuses him of being a shut in but its his personal opinion that he’s just… selective about when he leaves his room. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

She had at least been right about the food though- Wakandan food is a special kind of delicious and he’s always pleased to eat whatever new thing Shuri brings him. T’Challa continues to keep his distance too, obviously sensing that Tony wants nothing to do with him but he sees the way he looks hurt every time Tony ignores him. He has no idea _why_ though, its hardly as if they know each other super well for him to be getting offended when Tony doesn’t give him the time of day. It does mean he mostly relies on Shuri to fill him in on all things culture though and she finds it more tedious to explain things to him than T’Challa did when Tony had asked him about the Black Panther and Bast. He dislikes that he would rather ask T’Challa about cultural cues he’s missing out on than Shuri and he refuses to give in his annoyance with Shuri’s subpar explanations and go to T’Challa instead.

Mostly he keeps to himself so when someone knocks on the door he’s surprised. He considers ignoring who was almost certainly T’Challa behind the door- Shuri stopped knocking forever ago- but he feels kind of bad so he goes to the door. Its not like he couldn’t tell the prince to fuck off to his face anyways but when he opens the door he finds the _king_ there instead. “Uh, can I help you?” he asks, frowning. Something tells him that’s a _no_ but the king came to him so he figures T’Chaka has his reasons.

“Come with me,” he says and with that he turns and walks off, clearly expecting Tony to follow. Normally Tony would find the action irritating but something about the way T’Chaka carries himself doesn’t speak to the usual arrogance he gets from authority figures. The man walks, talks, and interacts with people like he’s a king yes, but there’s a quiet, reserved nature to it that Tony recognizes in his son as well. He doesn’t want to admit that but of all the things he could say about T’Challa arrogant is not on his list of criticisms.

“Where exactly are we going?” Tony asks after a few minutes of walking down the twisting and turning hallways.

“You’re naturally quite curious,” the king says instead of answering his question. “You’ve taken an interest in science and environmentalism in particular.”

Tony snorts, “and the fact that you know that isn’t creepy at all,” he mumbles to himself.

“In our defense between your style of dress and your skin tone you are impossible to miss, and your interests are highly specific. You’ve read nearly everything the library here has on both subjects and you still ask Shuri questions,” he says.

Yeah, because Wakandan science was heavily built into their culture- or more accurately culture _s_ \- and it left him lacking in knowledge no matter how much he read. He wonders if other people have the same problem moving to new places- all the books being presented in a way that forces to you already be familiar with all the cultural cues you don’t actually understand. “I like reading,” Tony mumbles.

“Shuri tells me you are an excellent problem solver, a very fast thinker and your solutions suggest that the way you think is quite… what is it that American’s say… out of the box,” he says, pride flickering across his features for a moment for remembering the phrase.

He shrugs, “I’ve always been like that.” People hated him for it too, especially Howard. He’s supposed to be lesser but he is undeniably unequivocally better than what most anyone else his country had to offer at least technologically, and most of the world really. Shuri is the first person he’s met that’s actually smarter than him and aside from her only Vankov even compared. Howard had been pleased to learn that Tony wasn’t a complete moron at first- everyone had been surprised he had his father’s talent for inventing- but then he started to get better. And once he got better than Howard, which was near immediately, that surprise turned more to jealousy and outrage.

Alphas didn’t like that the one smart omega they were willing to give an inch of credit to outstripped them in near every area of intelligence. And even the people that were smarter than him in other fields weren’t much impressed to learn how fast he could pick up information. Except Bruce because he’s not a prick but then his research went sour and last Tony heard he was licking his wounds in South America somewhere.

“You were resented for it too,” T’Chaka says and Tony shrugs.

“So what if I was, I can’t help that I’m smarter than other people,” he says in that same clipped, arrogant tone that got him labeled as ‘difficult’ in America. He’s not difficult at all though, he just demands the respect he deserves and reacts badly when he doesn’t get it. Its hardly his fault alphas and most betas were too fucking stupid to understand that.

T’Chaka laughs at his comment though, “I bet people did not react very well to your strong personality. People don’t react well to Shuri either, when she leaves Wakanda. Took us awhile to figure out why,” he says.

Tony snorts, “the blatant discrimination against omegas somehow went over your head? Wakandans are _so_ not that stupid,” he says. Not when they’ve built such a fantastic technological marvel, and the rest of their affairs seem just as in order.

“We aren’t, but we thought perhaps it was her race or gender. Imagine our surprise when that was not the case,” the king says, shaking his head.

“In your defense those things wouldn’t help her out any,” Tony says. Rhodey’s an alpha but still got shit for his race, and despite having worked with him for years people _still_ assume Pepper doesn’t know what she’s talking about when she talks about his inventions for no real reason aside from assumptions about women and assistants. Both hate Howard in near equal parts and that’s probably how they won their way into his heart. Anyone who hates Howard is a friend of his.

“Probably not,” T’Chaka agrees. “But the point is that Wakanda was never exposed to ideas about omegas that exist near universally elsewhere thanks to colonization and later globalization. What we _did_ pick up on violently opposed our own traditions and beliefs and you will learn Wakanda as a country is firm in its beliefs. Sometimes for better or worse. You will be disliked here but not because you are an omega. You will be disliked because you are a foreigner.”

Blunt, but Tony appreciates it. “I already noticed all the looks and whispers but I’m also new here so in their defense I do technically count as gossip worthy at the moment. But if people are bound to find some kind of problem with where I’m from than why bring me here?” he asks.

T’Chaka smiles at him, “I was hoping you would ask that. Have you ridden the trains yet?” he asks and Tony shakes his head. T’Chaka smiles wider, “excellent then- this will be a first.”

People outside the massive home T’Chaka and the rest of his family live in are polite at least to him. Most people ignore Tony, look at him with mild interest or disinterest, give him looks of outright dislike or ask the king questions he gets the feeling are rude. He wishes now that he would have paid more attention to the words he spent so much time reading because it would have been a good way to pick up the language but he hadn’t done that, go figure. So now he mostly gathers the tone people spoke in and the quiet power T’Chaka held while he responds. He doesn’t need to know the language to know T’Chaka doesn’t speak badly of him either.

When they finally, mercifully make it to a damn train he’s grateful until the thing fucking _rockets_ them forward hard enough that he nearly falls on his ass. T’Chaka anticipates it and catches him while the children off to the side laugh. Tony smiles at them and they laugh more, likely unused to seeing someone new on the train. The ride is shockingly short and he gets the feeling that he’s gone a long distance too but he’ll ask when he isn’t hurrying to keep up with a king that was far too agile for his age.

T’Chaka leads him into another building, which results in more mazelike hallways and another train ride but this one is under ground. “You’ve been missing out on Shuri’s actual lab space,” T’Chaka tells him, smiling as the train shoots them forward. Tony at least anticipates it this time though the people around him take up most of his attention. Not because they’re doing anything strange really, its just that he can _feel_ the heat from their gazes and he really wonders what the hell he’s done to earn such hostile looks. When someone says something to the king it’s the first time Tony hears the man use a sharp tone and he raises an eyebrow, wondering what just happened when the train enters a new area and Tony’s eyes go wide.

“Holy shit,” he whispers as the trains turn purple under the lights above the massive cavern above them. There were other trains too, off to the side, but that’s not what catches his attention. “Vibranium,” he says softly and the king nods.

“I lied when I told the world I had no other vibranium to offer. Come along,” he says, giving someone a sharp look when they look at the king in disbelief.

He follows, frowning, “why lie?” he asks,

T’Chaka shakes his head and leads him to an elevator, “that’s not the right question. But I lied because this is a valuable resource- unimaginably so. You haven’t even seen the _surface_ of what this metal is capable of, how many new applications Shuri has found for it and how many more she’s sure to find. In the wrong hands this mountain could be a weapon of mass destruction.”

“What makes you think you’re the right hands?” Tony asks, too used to being suspicious of authority figures.

“When the world nearly ended it was not Wakanda that caused it,” he says. Well, Tony guesses it’s hard to argue with that. The man made a point- if the metal has huge applications like the king implied it stands to reason that weapons would be in that list of applications and it wasn’t Wakanda that nearly wiped them all out so whatever weapons they had they didn’t use them often if ever.

“Fair point,” he murmurs. “Then wait, why am I here if this is some kind of secret?” he asks as they exit the elevator. The room they step into is large and Tony recognizes the patterns on the walls from Shuri’s lab space- or other lab space he guesses, and from other areas of Wakanda that he’s wandered into.

T’Chaka nods, “and _that_ is the question I was waiting for,” he says softly, looking out at the vibranuim mountain through the glass of the lab walls. Its stunning, far more beautiful than anything Tony has ever seen before.

“Well?” he prompts when the king doesn’t go on. Trains flit about through tunnels obviously carved out from the mountain and he can see people working in the space too.

“I want my son to be happy,” he says softly, “and I have no desire to see you unhappy. But right now you are not stupid enough to have failed to realize that being pulled from your country into an unfamiliar, strange land where you don’t know the language, the customs, or anything that would allow you to get any kind of help should you need it puts out in a highly precarious position. If T’Challa was bad man you would _not_ be in a position to do much but what he asks or else. It is not the kind of foundation in which you build a relationship- the power dynamic is _wildly_ skewed in favor of T’Challa. And that doesn’t acknowledge the routine discrimination you’re used to thanks to your omega status. So this is my gift to you and to T’Challa- this secret that you could very well use to destroy us. Now you have as much power as he does. Do with it what you will.”

Tony looks back out at the vibranium and raises an eyebrow, realizing now why people on the train were so offended to see him there. “I didn’t… want this,” Tony says eventually, shaking his head.

“Neither did T’Challa. He thought my methods were unorthodox at best and outright demeaning at worst and not inclined to disagree with him. But if I am to have any hope that you will grow to at least _like_ T’Challa I need to give power, equal standing. And allowing you to continue as you have for the last month would not achieve that,” he says softly.

That doesn’t explain everything though so Tony frowns, “what makes you think I won’t sell you out to America? And what makes you think America would care?” he asks. Neither of them were stupid enough to assume he was anything less than a spy but Tony had been sent here with no instructions to do much of anything. So how and why did T’Chaka suspect something was going on?

The king laughs, “America has amassed a lot of wealth and power- you’d know, you come from one of five families with most of the world’s wealth. When you collect power like that its for a reason and Wakanda will be a target eventually.”

Tony’s eyebrows shoot up, “so this is a ‘keep your friends close and you enemies closer’ kind of thing?” he asks, surprised.

“Of sorts,” the king agrees.

“Why me specifically then. You had at least four other options from America and a good amount of others around the world- why me?” Temperamental, selfish, lacking loyalty, lacking morals, self-serving, and arrogant were the top six biggest flaws he had- why the hell would the king chance _him_?

“I chose the person I knew would hate America the most for participating in such a demeaning trade- a person for the potential for information. I thought perhaps our way of life would endear us to you- mostly that you wouldn’t face the usual discrimination you see elsewhere though that hasn’t happened. Regardless, you resent your home country too much, I think, to give them this information,” he says.

“That’s a big ‘if,” Tony points out.

“It would be if you didn’t resent Wakanda so much for simple politeness. You’ve been waiting for something to happen for a month, for some reason to hate us. If you look _that_ hard for a reason to dislike someone I can’t imagine how easy you must find hating America,” he points out.

Maybe so but that hardly meant he didn’t still have some kind of loyalty to his country. He doesn’t mostly because he found nationalism pointless and ridiculous, but even if he did Rhodey is in the military. Something tells him he didn’t want to see what vibranium could do to America’s armies.

But he doesn’t want to give T’Chaka the impression that he’s loyal to Wakanda either so he turns to face then king. “Make no mistake- I am _not_ endeared to you or your country whatsoever. My loyalties lie with myself, my own agenda, and whatever it is this week that I think is right. Always has, always will. If you decide to sell me off like a cow for information instead of just accepting me like one I will happily fuck you over but for now I’m more pissed off with where I came from than where I ended up. You chose someone who is _way_ to temperamental for you goals,” he says harshly, letting each word come out in a clear, enunciated way that left little to the imagination.

He gets the first hint that the king is actually worried after that but that was his goal anyways. T’Chaka wanted to give Tony power, and given the flicker of fear that crosses the king’s face he has it. But Tony isn’t wrong in telling him he chose the wrong person for this- Tony’s whims were always in flight, landing wherever was the most suitable at any given time and they are always subject to change. That’s not the kind of person you want to be handing trade secrets to- America already made that mistake. He may not have a strong desire to sell T’Chaka out, but knowing the king has a weakness that’s easily exploited probably wasn’t a good move on his part.

*

T’Chaka considers his choice to tell Tony about the vibranium and he _prays_ he didn’t just make a massive mistake. “Whatever it is that’s on your mind I’m sure you will work it out,” Ramanda tells him, walking up from behind him.

He sighs, “we better hope so,” he says softly. If they didn’t… he doesn’t want to think about that.

“Tony?” Ramanda guesses and he nods. “You told him about the vibranium,” she guesses again and he nods. She’s always been good at being one step ahead at least and now is not an exception. “He wouldn’t say anything,” she says with certainty T’Chaka is not certain is warranted.

“You didn’t see his face, hear his voice. He would,” T’Chaka says.

Ramanda shakes her head though. “No, he wouldn’t. Don’t look at me like that T’Chaka I know what I’m talking about. If he ever found a way to ruin you or T’Challa he would do it in a heartbeat, but to do something that would ruin an entire _country_? He’s simply not that cruel.”

“His keeping the vibranium secret is a cruelty to his own country, Ramanda,” he points out.

“Only because we know what it can do. And Tony is not stupid, even when he learns how useful it can be he will not miss the weapons applications the metal has. What makes you think his keeping quiet isn’t his own way of protecting his country, hmm?” she asks.

Like always he hadn’t thought of that and it makes sense minus Tony’s clear disgust with his home country. “I don’t think there’s any love lost for America with him,” he says softly.

“Perhaps not,” Ramanda says, “but his best friend is a Colonel in America’s air force- if we have raise our weapons they’re pointed at someone he cares about. Tony’s loyalties may be fickle by our standards but he has them. Just not necessarily in the same way we do. He will keep quiet,” she says again.

He sighs and sits back, “and T’Challa?” he asks.

“What about him?” Ramanda asks.

“What happens to him in all this?” It occurs to him now that perhaps this was not as good a plan as he thought it was in the beginning. If Tony could hear his thoughts he suspects the omega would tell him its because he didn’t factor in how he would react to the situation, at least not well enough.

“Have you ever known T’Challa to be anything less than loving and caring?” Ramanda asks.

“No, but-” she cuts him off.

“No ‘buts’- you saw what Tony came from. That poor child is _starved_ for love an affection, so much so that what affection he’s gotten from us has been met with nothing but suspicion because he is so unused to it he thinks we have an ulterior motive. He doesn’t dislike T’Challa for any reason except his own assumption that T’Challa is playing a game to get Tony to let his guard down before he strikes,” she says.

“Ramanda, we _did_ have an ulterior motive,” he points out.

She rolls her eyes at him, “for the marriage, not the respect. Keep up,” she teases. “And I’d like to point out that he already fulfilled his obligations to our motives when he married T’Challa _and_ you told him about the rest of our motives freely and gave him the power to ruin us all. We had no motive for how we treated him once he got here, though, except for basic decency. Once he realizes that he will relax and let T’Challa in.”

He certainly hopes so because if he didn’t than he just fated his son to a miserable marriage.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for a mention of animal cruelty

Shuri remains uncharacteristically quiet as Tony rewrites the code for JARVIS. There were a few bugs he had needed to work out anyways so his remodel accounts for the issues in the original code had. “You wouldn’t say anything, would you?” Shuri asks finally and Tony looks up, frowning at the much deeper purple of the vibranium mountain. Clearly a good amount of time has passed since he started his code rewrites.

When he looks back at Shuri though he shakes his head. “I’m not exactly fond of your father, and I’m less fond of your brother, but I’m not going to screw an entire country over with a war that would _absolutely_ happen based on what is essentially a whim. If I wanted revenge, _really_ wanted it, I’d find a way but not that way.” The locals clearly aren’t fond of him either- a few shouted what he assumed were rude things at him but not knowing the language the insults were useless, but he has no real desire to see these people suffer.

His speech relaxes Shuri nonetheless and she sits back in her seat. “Then what will you do?” she asks.

“Research,” he says simply. Vibranium has massive applications no one else has ever even considered outside of Wakanda obviously and T’Chaka pointed out himself that Tony is a naturally curious person. Always has been- most of his life has been spent tearing things apart to see how they worked and then putting them back together again in new, more efficient and more interesting ways. So vibranium is something new to figure out, a new tool he can unlock the mysteries of to pass time.

Shuri goes back to silence and for a long time they stay like that, working on their individual projects before Tony speaks again. “T’Chaka must really love his son to take a gamble on handing out information like that just because he thought there was a chance I wouldn’t hate T’Challa after hearing it,” he says softly. In the quiet lab though the noise almost echoes and it only adds weight to the words.

“He would love you, you know. If you let him,” Shuri murmurs. “You actually have a lot in common.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t change how I ended up here,” he points out.

Shuri considers this for a moment and he can see her debate on saying something else before she changes her mind. “You seem surprised that our father would care,” she says, maybe hitting closer to home than she intended to with the comment.

“I’m surprised that he’d care enough to potentially start a war,” he says, evading Shuri’s unspoken inquiry.

She laughs softly, “the risk really isn’t that high with a war. We could destroy any army that comes our way easily- but that is not our way. We don’t start wars,” she says.

“So you wouldn’t fight if you needed to?” he asks skeptically.

“Oh we would, and we would win. But unlike your country we don’t go looking to win a fight, we just end them if they come our way. Point is we know we’d win the war; we just don’t want to fight it if we can avoid it. So the risk mostly lies in what we would lose culturally, and the people we would lose. I think he has faith in you though,” Shuri says, head tilted to the side a little.

Tony shakes his head, “faith I didn’t earn,” he mumbles.

Shuri snorts, “you don’t _earn_ faith- that’s freely given. It’s a lack of faith that’s earned,” she says like this is a normal, every day opinion but in Tony’s experience it isn’t.

“Is that… a normal opinion here?” he asks and Shuri frowns.

“Isn’t that a normal opinion everywhere?” she asks and he shakes his head.

“In America they tend to favor a more ‘respect isn’t given, its earned’ type philosophy.” He used to get that line from Howard all the time and it irritated the hell out of him. Mostly because Howard’s standards are _impossibly_ high just to purposefully set Tony up for failure. And then he had the gull to rub Tony’s nose in it too.

“So what, in America you automatically get treated with disrespect until you do some arbitrary thing to gain respect? What kind of stupid philosophy is _that_?” she asks and Tony laughs.

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious flaw in that argument. But the people who say that are usually using that phrase to cover up what they really mean, which is ‘adhere to my weirdly specific set of standards or suffer the consequences’. That, or they’re pissed off that you stood up for yourself and they want to try and put you in your place by acting like their disrespect was earned.” Tony has had the misfortune of dealing with a _lot_ of that mostly because he refuses to let people devalue his work. Its not his fault that until he met Shuri he was the best at what he did. Now he mostly thinks it’s a shame that Shuri isn’t well known everywhere else in the world because her ability to engineer is off the charts impressive.

Shuri shakes her head, “America is weird,” she murmurs. “If it makes a difference though we don’t do that here. We have faith in one another unless something happens to shake it.”

“Sounds like a good way to get screwed over,” Tony says, unable to imagine a world in which he was to automatically trust everyone around him until they did something to make that trust go away.

“Well your method hardly works- being suspicious of everyone and everything around you doesn’t mean you don’t get hurt, it just means you’re likely to push everyone else away because one person did something wrong and then you end up hurt anyways because you’re lonely. Sounds like a cold, isolated world to me,” she says.

Cold and isolated maybe, but Tony’s always liked it that way.

*

Ramanda watches as T’Challa does his best to coax the cat from her current hiding place in a tree, doing his best not to lose his balance as he tries to convince the animal he isn’t going to hurt it so he can remove it from danger. The cat is less than cooperative and has been for some time but T’Challa is patient, allowing the cat to climb further up the tree and away from him when he accidentally frightens the animal.

T’Challa does not get annoyed, he speaks softly to the cat, and he does his best to reassure the animal that he means it no harm. It takes some time but eventually the cat comes down enough for T’Challa to touch it, and after T’Challa lets the cat sniff his hand a few times she lets T’Challa pet her too. Eventually he’s able to lift the cat out of the tree and he cradles the cat carefully, ensuring that she is well supported.

She walks over then, extending her hand to the cat and letting her sniff it before the cat deems her safe and she pets the cat’s head. “You were patient with this cat,” she says, scratching behind the cat’s ears.

“She was scared,” T’Challa says, “she just needed some time.”

“Not unlike Tony,” she points out but T’Challa makes a face.

“Humans are more complicated than cats,” he says.

Ramanda snorts, “humans are not more complicated that cats, they’re just more unpredictable. Tony needs time, patience, and love like this cat does. You didn’t give up on the cat,” she says.

“The cat needed help, Tony is self sufficient,” T’Challa says.

“You don’t want to be rejected,” she translates easily. “Its easier to give up than it is to try with matters of the heart.”

T’Challa sighs, “if he wants nothing to do with me I cannot do anything about that,” he says.

“I’m not saying he needs to have anything to do with you- what I’m saying is that he deserves to feel safe and loved, like this cat does, and that it is insulting that you put more effort into the cat than him. So try harder,” she tells him.

“Why is it my responsibility to try? He can make an effort to you know,” T’Challa says in a clipped, irritated tone that reminds her more of who he was in his teens, not the man he grew into. The regression irritates her.

“Because _you_ had a choice and he did not. You and I both know T’Chaka would have found another way to achieve his goals had you said no- Tony did not get that luxury. He was shipped here no doubt as some kind of spy for his country and we were lucky enough that he does not accept the lesser place he has been handed as an omega and resented the people who did this to him. You though, you could have backed out at any point, so you don’t get to complain now because this is a situation of your own making,” she tells him. “So stop this feeling sorry for yourself and _do_ something.”

T’Challa wilts a little under her glare, as he _should_ , and sighs. “I don’t know how to connect with someone who has no desire to connect to me,” he says softly.

“I already told you how, T’Challa, and you’ve already done it. You’re holding the proof,” she says, nodding to the cat in his arms.

*

T’Challa holds the cat in his arms carefully and knocks on Tony’s door. He already made sure that he wasn’t in Shuri’s lab and the cat had _not_ been pleased to find itself on public transportation. Thankfully he’s finished with that useless trip now though so he stands and waits for Tony to either ignore him or answer his knock. His mother is right- he has always been the one who’s had choice here. As difficult as Tony is he deserves the effort put into at least making him comfortable in Wakanda. For a moment he considers the fact that he made no plans for what to do if Tony didn’t answer the door. He considers potentially releasing the cat into his room through the bathroom when the door opens and Tony glares at him for a half a second before he notices the cat.

“Oh, you’re adorable,” Tony tells the cat, stepping closer to T’Challa for the first time since they met. He extends his hand to the cat’s nose, letting her sniff him for a moment before he pets her head.

“I found her in a tree,” he says, smiling down at the cat. “She wasn’t impressed to find herself there though she certainly climbed it herself.” Cats, they’re strange creatures.

Tony smiles softly, “I used to have a cat, technically she was a stray but I felt bad when I found her starving in the garden. Pretty sure Howard drowned her,” he mumbles.

T’Challa recoils a little, drawing Tony’s attention to his face. “Your father?” he asks and Tony nods. “Disgusting man,” he spits out, forgetting for a moment that Tony might take offense to that. Thankfully he doesn’t, instead he relaxes a little, like he had expected T’Challa to empathize with his _father_ for some reason and not the innocent cat. What kind of people surrounded him in America?

“Glad you think so. Most people I know worship him like a god,” Tony says, shaking his head like that would remove the thought from his mind.

“Can’t say I could even bring myself to _like_ someone who is willing to kill a cat purposefully,” he says honestly, wrinkling his nose harshly.

“I take it you like cats, then,” Tony says, petting the cat’s head again. She reacts well to it, purring softly in his arms and doing that squinty eye thing cats do when they are content.

“In my culture cats are an extension of our gods- they are highly revered and respected,” he says. “Killing one would be unthinkable.”

Tony lets out a small laugh, “people mostly dislike cats in my culture. The black ones are considered bad luck if they cross your path and there are always rumors about shelters not selling them around Halloween out of fear people will sacrifice them,” he says.

T’Challa gives him a horrified look because that was just _primitive_. “Seriously?” he asks because that sounds… out of the realm of possibility to him.

“The bad luck thing has mostly died out, its largely considered superstition but there are still plenty of people who think cats are evil or whatever,” Tony explains. “Personally I like cats better than most animals. They know their worth whether or not others see it. I can relate.”

He shakes his head, unable to conceive of _sacrificing_ cats for any reason let alone whatever the motivation was for Americans, rumors or no. “Black cats are especially good luck here- they’re like tiny versions of Bast but they’re somewhat rare to find,” he says.

Tony looks pointedly at the cat in his arms, “you didn’t seem to have a problem,” he points out.

“They say they only appear to those who need their presence. I thought maybe you would need her more than I would,” he says. He isn’t sure but he thinks the cat is another sign from Bast and at least Tony actually _likes_ cats, something that is apparently unusual in his country. He’s not quite sure what he’d do if Tony didn’t like cats- its not something he considered. “If your country isn’t fond of cats though what do they keep as companions? Lizards?” he asks, trying to remember if America’s geography would allow for lizards as pets.

Tony snorts, “no we keep dogs usually. I mean people have lizards, birds, and insects but they aren’t the popular pets. Do you mind?” he asks, gesturing to the cat.

T’Challa shakes his head, carefully shifting the cat so Tony can take her. He does, grinning down at the furry animal before stepping back and shutting the door in T’Challa’s face. For a moment he’s surprised but then he laughs. Of course Tony’s interest is in the cat, not him, but his mother had been right. This was something he chose and… and he doesn’t want to try because he doesn’t want to fail. Failing has never come easy to him and now that it is he wants nothing to do with it. So its easier to push Tony out than to try and at least reach out enough to help him adjust to his new normal. He sighs and considers the door, shaking his head wearily.

“Well played,” he says to Tony through the door. He considers walking away but then he turns back. “You know not many people are willing to stand up to a prince. When I was a child I was quite arrogant though I mostly grew out of it. But along the way I learned the value of someone who is willing to look past your status and treat you the way you deserve to be treated. I’ll go get some cat things,” he tells Tony before he walks away, smiling. Stubborn as Tony is, and that irritates him to no end, he has a small appreciation for Tony’s conviction.

*

He finds the cat stuff in the bathroom when he opens the door and hits a litter box surrounded with toys. The cat is enthused with all the new toy rodents and makes use of them immediately and Tony drags the rest of the stuff into his room. He considers T’Challa’s door while he sets up the cat’s litter and throws various toys around the room, amused as the cat chases after them. He’s in the middle of trying to find a spot for the cat tree when the T’Challa’s door opens and he turns around.

“Sorry,” T’Challa murmurs, going to close the door but Tony speaks first.

“Wait,” he says. T’Challa stops immediately, poking his head back through the door a little further. “What did you mean earlier, that you learned the value of someone who’d treat you the way you deserve to be treated? Because I’ve been kind of an asshole,” he points out.

T’Challa shrugs, “you’ve been placed in an unfortunate situation that could have gone quite badly for you. I can’t blame you for your suspicion,” he says.

Funny because Tony would have absolutely blamed himself but whatever. “And the first bit?” he asks.

That earns him a sigh as T’Challa opens his door a little wider and leans against the frame. “When I was young I had a friend, singular. I’m naturally good at most of the things I’ve tried and it showed in the way I acted. I never meant to but I spent a lot of time rubbing B’Tumba’s nose in how much more natural talent I had than him at… basically everything. Needless to say that did not end well. We had a falling out and I realized I only ever had one friend and I spent all my time insulting him to make myself feel better. It was needlessly cruel and no one was willing to say anything because I am a prince.” He looks ashamed in a way that Tony knows is hard to fake because he’s tried it with little success.

“And you think I would? Say something I mean?” he asks.

T’Challa laughs, “I know you would. You don’t care about my status and believe it or not your resentment is probably good for me. I already told you I don’t have to fight for things, they naturally go my way. Always have. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m bad at this,” he says, gesturing around and shaking his head, smiling a little.

Tony looks at the cat, who is occupied with hunting toy mice, and smiles a little. “I don’t think you are,” he murmurs, “and your father definitely doesn’t think you are.”

“Did he say something?” T’Challa asks and Tony nods.

“Or sorts. He told me about the vibranuim mountain, well, showed it to me. I don’t think he’d ever trust me with something like that if he didn’t have the _utmost_ faith that at some point you would either win me over or find some other way to… I don’t know, get along with me or something.” T’Chaka has enough faith that he had taken time to give Tony vital information for no other reason than to give Tony equal footing with T’Challa. It… spoke volumes about what the king thinks of his son and from Tony has witnessed he is a good king and a good man. Perhaps a little ahead of himself in political planning but in his defense its been a long time since his country has dealt with world politics and T’Chaka specifically has never had to tackle world politics. Tony suspects his plans would have worked much better in Wakanda than they would elsewhere.

Tony’s words make T’Challa’s eyes all but bug out of his head and he opens his mouth to speak but all that comes out is a squeak. It takes him a few more moments to gather himself before he’s coherent. “Did he tell you why?” T’Challa asks softly, frowning slightly.

He nods. “Because he knew that you held the power in our relationship and he wanted me to be equal to you. Bit risky- I’m fickle at best- but I think that kind of faith says a lot about you- or at least who T’Chaka thinks you are. Your sister too,” he says. He’s not used to seeing such blatant family support and he’s unsure what to do with it. T’Challa… Tony doesn’t want to like him, he doesn’t really, but his family has such an unshakable faith that its hard not to be at least a little curious.

“You seem surprised by the support. Family is important in America- this shouldn’t surprise you,” T’Challa says, confused at what he sees as a consistency issue.

It isn’t but he doesn’t know that. “Family is important in America but that doesn’t make them love you and half of mine hates and resents my existence. My mom tries but she sort of ruined her chances at winning my confidence when she sold me off as a political pawn presumably for vibranium. That I’m not going to tell anyone about, by the way. Using me as a tool for resources was a bad move for America. They should have known my only agenda is the one where I win, not the one where I end up married to a stranger.” He’s always been selfish; sometimes a little cruel too, so why the hell anyone agreed to _him_ being the omega to bring in a resource T’Chaka outright stated was no longer available he will never know.

T’Challa remains quiet for a long few moments before he speaks. “There’s nothing wrong with being self serving if you’re the only one willing to look out for your wellbeing. Its survival,” he says.

Yeah, but most don’t seem to agree with that.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this came out... interesting lol.
> 
> Warning for a mentions (but no actual) sexual assault/ rape.

When T’Challa wakes up his nose itches and he sniffs at the curious scent in the room. It takes him a long few moments to place the sweet, alluring scent and then he sighs, dragging himself out of bed and resigning himself to Tony hating him again. He pulls open the bathroom door and blinks a few times because the scent is stronger here but he shakes his head. Tony doesn’t need this at the moment. Instead of lingering just to sniff he knocks on their shared door, “Tony, are you awake?” he asks, remembering belatedly that he hadn’t checked the time. Of course he hadn’t- Tony’s scent had distracted him.

He hears shuffling around nonetheless and then he hears Tony swear loudly. “I will get Shuri,” he tells Tony, quickly leaving the room to give him privacy- shutting the bathroom door back to his room loudly enough that Tony knows he’s gone.

*

Tony squints at Shuri, “we _what_?” he asks because the words that just came out of her mouth made no sense.

“We go to a temple and essentially sit in cold baths until we are no longer ready to die of heat stroke. You know they say being an omega is a sacred thing but I think Bast secretly dislikes us given that she gives us fevers for four days every month. Seriously, what is the _deal_?” she asks, shaking her head.

Tony frowns, “people just… fuck off for four days and no one cares?” he asks. “In America that does not happen.” They’re mostly expected to get over themselves unless an alpha is involved- then a lot of sex was expected. Neither option is entirely pleasant to Tony. He’d prefer a good balance between the two but he’s not likely to get that. And here apparently he could sit in cold water for four days and no one even cared.

“America sucks,” Shuri says. “But yeah, here we go to temples and try not to die there. Don’t tell anyone that though, they have no idea what we do and it’s all shrouded in secrecy and all that. I was _so_ excited for my first heat so I could figure out what we did in those temples and we don’t even do anything cool. I was so disappointed! But come on, you’re starting to smell nice to me and I don’t care what omegas smell like,” she says, prodding him forward.

He goes willingly, curious to see what exactly Shuri was talking about.

The caves where the temples are located, as it turns out, are quite beautiful. He can smell the water in them, and the omegas, but it’s the water that gets his attention. These days water that smells… natural for lack of a better way to put it is hard to come by. It either smelled like chemicals or like death depending on whether or not it’s drinkable. The water in the caves smells clean and fresh though and Tony sniffs, curious about how Wakandans managed. If he were to hazard a guess though he’d guess vibranium. It seems that they’ve found massive applications for the metal and they have a massive mountain of it- clearly its helped them adjust to the worsening weather patterns easier than everyone else.

“You look surprised,” Shuri notes and he nods.

“Water doesn’t smell this nice where I’m from,” he murmurs.

Shuri wrinkles her nose, “than what _does_ it smell like? This water doesn’t smell fresh at all, it smells hormonal.”

“Better than chemical or ecological disaster,” he says. Shuri raises an eyebrow at that but remains silent in favor of dragging him through the caves, obviously intent on landing in a certain spot. It takes all of five seconds for him to end up completely confused but Shuri happily works her way through the confusing mess of walls until she reaches her desired destination.

“I like this space because its away from most others- I hate being around people in heat so be polite or I’ll abandon you in a cave by some random temple and you’ll be lost forever,” she threatens but she smiles, indicating that she’s probably joking. Or Tony hopes she is because he really would get lost for life in these caves.

*

The water feels cool and refreshing against his skin and he relaxes into it. Shuri had disappeared off somewhere some time ago but he doesn’t mind being alone. Actually he prefers being by himself when dealing with heats but rarely got the opportunity to- he was either expected to take suppressants and shut up or get with an alpha and either way he didn’t get to spend time by himself. Now though the water cools his heated skin, and the air feels fresh and clean in a way he’s unused to. It’s pleasant all things considered.

He wonders if the water has some other quality to it too considering how… cooling it was to his skin. In America there are several ways to deal with the overheating of heats but none of them are as effective as the water. He considers asking Shuri whenever she comes back but eventually decides against it. He has plenty of time to figure it out and for now his brain is mostly at its melting point. He’s always hated heats because he isn’t fond of feeling hot and sticky for several days nor is he fond of the perceptions his heats got but here they seem at least bearable.

“Hey, sorry I took so long I spent _way_ too much time convincing people you weren’t going to desecrate our temples and ruin our traditions by simply _being_ here. People are _so_ dramatic,” Shuri says, rolling her eyes as she walks into the room with a basket of foreign looking fruits. Tony has seen them around but not tried any of them. “Stop looking at the fruit like that, heats take a lot out of omegas, we can’t eat crappy foods,” she says.

Tony wrinkles his nose, “can so. I do it all the time,” he says. He shouldn’t and he knows it but he has a bad habit of doing the opposite of that people tell him to.

“Well maybe that’s why you’re so exhausted right now. So shut up and eat the fruits,” Shuri tells him, pushing the basket his way before throwing herself into the water. Steam rises off of her skin and Tony snorts, almost feeling bad for her but not quite. So she got a little toasty while out of the water, he has to eat fruits now. They’re even. He does pick up the nearest fruit that looks like something he’s seen before and sniffs it though, curious before he takes a bite. It _looks_ like an apple on the outside but the inside is black. He almost tosses the fruit away but his taste buds tell him that the food is good just in time and he frowns, deciding that the kind of apple might look gross but it tastes fine.

“What is this?” he asks when Shuri surfaces from the water looking less ready to keel over.

She stares a the fruit for a moment and then sighs, “I don’t know what to call that in English, he closest is grape but that is not a grape,” she says. Tony examines the overly large fruit in his hand and snorts at the idea of this being a grape.

“Fine then I guess. Tastes good regardless,” he says.

Shuri wrinkles her nose, “that is _disgusting_. I only put it in there to trick you into eating it and apparently you like that nasty fruit. Your and T’Challa have _no_ taste,” she tells him, shaking her head.

*

T’Challa is doing his best to read but Tony’s cat is making his life difficult by trying to sit on his book. “Do you mind?” he asks the cat. She doesn’t- she goes and tries to sit on his book again, making a disgruntled noise when he lifts her off the text. “There is no need for you to be rude,” he tells the cat. She responds by rubbing her face on the corner of the book repeatedly with no regard to how this affects his reading. Cats.

While he does his best to rearrange the cat much to both of their annoyance he hears the door to the room next to his open and he frowns. The cat all but leaps off his bed and goes straight to the bathroom door to yowl and he sighs, getting off the bed. Tony must have particularly short heats if he’s back so soon but what does T’Challa know really? So he opens the door to let the cat back into Tony’s space just as Tony opens his door. The cat, oblivious to the sudden tension, runs across the bathroom to Tony and rubs herself along his leg while purring. “I put up with you trying to sleep on my face for four days and you abandon me like this? I am offended,” he tells the cat- in English for Tony’s benefit.

Tony smiles as he stoops down to scoop the cat up, “Concrete knows who loves her best, hmm?” Tony tells the cat. Her tail flicks back and forth and she purrs, pleased with her situation.

“This is the last time I politely host you,” T’Challa tells the cat, “next time you can deal with Okoye. And hello, Tony,” he says, nodding to him. “Also ‘Concrete’ is a terrible cat name.”

T’Challa expects Tony to ignore him but instead he smiles a little, “I named her that because she’s dumb as a block of cement. Cute, but she’s only got her looks going for her. Thanks for watching her,” he says.

He’s confused by the politeness but he doesn’t question it either. If Tony wants to be polite he will happily let him. “It’s no problem, I love cats so really it was a privilege. Clearly she prefers you,” he notes.

“Probably because I smell hormonal,” Tony says and until he mentions it T’Challa hadn’t much paid attention to the sweet smell of the room.

“You’re back early?” he asks more than states but only because he’s confused.

For a moment Tony looks guilty but then he shrugs, “sorry. Time off is foreign and also I _bored_ ,” he says, seemingly catching himself before he says much else. Shuri obviously informed him that whatever it was omegas did in their temples isn’t something the rest of the population knows about. He wants to know what they do, and more specifically how it could be boring to Tony, but he doesn’t ask out of respect.

Instead he asks something else. “No one was… unpleasant to you, were they?” he asks. His country is certainly ahead as far as omega rights go but the rights of foreigners? They haven’t even had to consider laws like that in hundreds of years. To say they are behind is an understatement.

Tony shakes his head though, “no and even if they were I don’t understand the language. I mean I know when people aren’t pleased- tone and body language does a lot to explain how they feel, but words are lost on me. Shuri said something about traditions being ruined but mostly I was worried about not overheating and dying, not ruining sacred traditions. But uh, I was bored so.” He shrugs like this explains things but it doesn’t, not to T’Challa anyways. Tony is always doing something, always in motion. He would have thought Tony would like the time off. Clearly he does not know Tony well.

“You don’t seem to take well to inactivity,” T’Challa notes and Tony laughs.

“One of many flaws,” Tony says, smiling a little.

He raises an eyebrow, “heats seem to make you more pleasant,” he notes, “no offense,” he adds.

Tony rolls his eyes but there’s no real heat in it, “more like I have no energy to do much else, but yeah. In America our more… laid back nature is mostly misconstrued as a biologically designed form of submission but if alphas had to deal with this shit they’d know its not submission, its being too tired to fight back much. Like being sick except with a higher fever,” he says almost more to himself than T’Challa.

T’Challa squints, “literally everyone knows that, how could America have missed such obvious biological facts? Your body is in overdrive and- well you’re living it, you know more than I do. How is it possible that an entire country could all but _fabricate_ reasons for behavior that are explained in far more logical and less blatantly offensive ways?” He tries, and fails, to see how America’s conclusions could hold up to any kind of scientific exploration but its just _lost_ on him. He simply can’t imagine coming to the same conclusion that Tony gave him.

“You look confused,” Tony notes.

“I just can’t imagine being so _bad_ at basic observational science. Anyone with even the most basic of knowledge would know that heats aren’t some kind of… submission thing. That is so completely unrelated I- I don’t know, I cannot handle conclusions that are that ridiculous. Its like suggesting Egypts pyramids were built by aliens,” he says, shaking his head at the most ridiculous thing he could think of.

Tony snorts and laughs, “well in America some people think that too,” he says and T’Challa is certain hearing of this stupidity has made some of his precious brain cells die.

“America clearly only had one brain cell and it hung itself out of loneliness,” he says, shaking his head.

“What? Wakanda has no stupid opinions?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow but it isn’t challenging like he normally is. Instead its more… curious.

“Of course we do, but our stupid opinions are certain birds tasting good when they are clearly the turds of Bast, not assuming offensive opinions about an entire group of people based on faulty science and aliens building pyramids. Oh, and there is this one plane of ours that went down forever ago that people have all these ridiculous conspiracy theories about but other than that we are mostly okay. And the opinion that foreigners will ruin our way of life but in our defense we _did_ watch foreigners ruin the ways of life of everyone else around us but I think foreigners are mostly okay now. You seem fine,” he says and Tony laughs.

“And you’re rambling. Not a trait I’d predict a prince would have,” he says.

T’Challa shrugs, “usually its not a trait I have. But I ramble when I am unsure how to handle something,” he says. “Which doesn’t happen often.”

Tony raises an eyebrow, “what, don’t know how to deal with an omega in heat?” Tony asks almost playfully but not quite. Something about his tone of voice feels a touch forced but T’Challa elects to ignore it. Things have gone well so far, he’s certain he can keep it up.

“Not really- they are never around when in heat. But I think I’ve been doing okay all things considered. What’s causing me to ramble is more my being… unused to dealing with people who are outright hostile at my existence. People in Wakanda love me near universally and you… don’t. This interaction seems to be going well, I don’t want to botch it.” Like he has every other interaction, he adds to himself. But its difficult to try and get to know someone who wants nothing to do with you and he has no desire to force Tony to spend time with him so he’ll realize he isn’t what Tony thinks he is. If he did that than he would, in fact, be the person Tony thinks he is. He doesn’t want to prove him right either, for both of their sakes.

“Are you even affected?” Tony asks, frowning at him.

It takes a moment for T’Challa to realize Tony means his heat and he shrugs. “Sure, you smell delectable, like a dessert I like, but that’s mostly irrelevant. Is that… unusual in America?” he asks and Tony laughs with no humor in it.

“Oh in America alphas use heats as a rape apology argument. Or at least suggest our scents are an invitation for some kind of sexual contact,” he says and T’Challa _feels_ his entire body react to that, mostly by recoiling and taking a step back.

“That is _disgusting_! That- wait, why be around me if that is the reaction you’re used to?” he asks, wondering what Tony would do such an… _odd_ thing.

He shrugs, “everything else about how omegas are perceived here is difference, why not that too? Plus I already had evidence that was true- you were the one who noticed my heat to begin with and promptly left after waking me up. From across the room in a respectful manner. And I really was bored out of my mind,” he says, wrinkling his nose. He leans against the door, irritating the cat as she gets jostled but Tony adjusts her in his arms and she goes back to looking contented once she settles.

“Bored as you may be you should rest. You’re clearly exhausted,” he points out. Tony, for the first time since they started this conversation, gives him his usual offended look and he sighs. “I’m not saying do nothing, just do something that doesn’t require an abundance of energy. You’re clearly interested in science, I can grab a few books for you,” he says.

It takes a few moments but finally Tony nods, turning to head to his bed at least and T’Challa leaves him to go get a few books Tony might have an interest in. On a whim he grabs a book on Wakandan conspiracy theories too because they are just too ridiculous to pass up reading. When he returns though Tony is asleep so he leaves the books on his bed and goes back to his own room, Tony’s cat following at his heels because apparently she realized her owner is no fun at the moment. Cats.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My impulse control remains bad- have another chapter y'all :)

Tony recognizes the science book thanks to the images on the covers, but the book with the weird looking wolf thing on the front is what catches his attention. Twenty minutes later he’s curled into himself laughing at the absurd theories Wakandans came up with for what is essentially a genetic freak of nature that, like most things in Wakanda, had been altered by the vibranium mountain. As it turns out the mountain altered the DNA of the wildlife around it, which is interesting on its own, but the added theories of foreign governments trying to wipe Wakanda out with weird ginger wolves pretty much just because they look weird is the icing on the cake.

He gets up and goes over to the shared bathroom door and knocks on it. “T’Challa, have you actually _read_ this book? The red wolf conspiracy alone makes this thing worth it but the fact that it takes itself _so_ seriously despite spouting unfounded bullshit makes it even better!” he says, snickering. He jumps when the door opens almost immediately after he speaks, revealing T’Challa looking entirely too happy.

“What?” he asks, frowning self consciously.

“You look too happy to have heard my comment on this ridiculous conspiracy book. Have you read the one on the Jabari being the Wakandan equivalent of Bigfoot?” he asks, laughing to himself again.

T’Challa frowns, “what is ‘Bigfoot’?” he asks.

“Big ape kind of thing that’s more humanoid than not,” he explains and the information obviously clicks with T’Challa.

“Yes, that conspiracy is rather offensive to the Jabari. Just because they live in the mountains doesn’t mean they’re beasts,” he says, shaking his head.

“Okay but the one right after that claims Wakanda is its own dimension that’s sitting parallel to some other shittier dimension though. I mean that’s one way to look at the rest of the world outside of your country but _wow_ is that a stretch,” he says, shaking his head. It’s pretty hilarious to read though, especially when that theory starts going into technology and the supposed force field around Wakanda that apparently acts as an interdimensional barrier between the country and the ‘other’ dimension.

T’Challa lets out a pained sigh. “Please don’t judge the country by our conspiracy nuts, we do not deserve that,” he says, looking vaguely distressed by this possibility.

Tony snorts, “oh these are _nothing_ compared to America’s conspiracies. If they ever find out about Wakanda and the vibranium they will one hundred percent blame you for the world going to shit and claim it was some kind of bid for world domination evidence be damned. I am personally thrilled to know they will label me an accomplice in America’s demise,” he says, grinning. Who really cared about the rest of the world, or that Russia didn’t seem to suffer as much as others had, or that central parts of land masses minus tornado ally also fared well all things considered. Evidence either didn’t matter or was easily fabricated for the extreme end of conspiracy theorists.

T’Challa tilts his head to the side, “are you really that angry with your country?” he asks and there’s a touch of judgment to it. Not exactly surprising, Tony figures, from a group of people that has spent as much time as Wakanda has with nothing but itself. It’s the same reason Tony puts more faith in himself than most anything else around him.

“Yeah, I am, but I never put much faith in America to begin with. I was born on a rock, why have any pride or loyalty in that? I prefer having faith in things I have actual control of, things I did myself, not stupid shit like having faith in a flawed system just because I happen to live on that section of land. Its fickle at best- I live in Wakanda now and frankly it’s a hell of a lot better than what I’m used to. Nationalism tells me to ignore that and hold faith in America, logic tells me to hold faith in what’s proven to be best. Also I’m petty,” he says. The last bit is true, but it’s the first bit that he holds the most faith in. When people talked about their countries he finds them too unwilling to examine systems that work better than the ones they live in, hung up on pride in such an arbitrary thing like country of origin. His logic lies in evidence, method, and careful examination. Critical thinking directly conflicts with nationalistic ideals at least for him. Rhodey probably disagrees but that’s his problem.

“You believe that Wakanda is better than your home country? Even with the way people have treated you?” T’Challa asks, frowning.

He shrugs, “still better than America, but half of that is probably because I don’t understand the language.” The other half is due to his freshly Howard- free life. It isn’t something he expected when he came here but now that he’s here it’s been… pleasant to not have to live with Howard’s standards.

“I’m surprised you haven’t learned at least some things already- you’re gifted in language. You know how to speak five that I know of,” T’Challa says.

Tony sighs, “probably would have learned something if I had been paying attention to the translations but most of what I’ve picked up are probably swear words.” Rhodey likes to joke that Tony always learned the fastest way to offend someone in any given language before anything else and in his defense he’s not exactly wrong. So what little Wakandan he’s picked up is probably a series of words that are rude at best, offensive at worst. “Shuri seems to have a hard time translating words to English so maybe that’s why I haven’t learned much,” he adds, figuring if someone as smart as Shuri is stumped it makes sense that he might be too.

T’Challa laughs softly though, “Shuri is not good with languages. She’s only fluent in two- math and technology are the languages she prefers and Wakandan is particularly difficult to translate to English. Compared to our language English is… unwieldy and clumsy. Wakandan is… beautiful, for lack of a better way to describe it.”

So Tony knows- he’s heard the language spoken all around him and ultimately it sounds stunning the same way Spanish does. Tony is fond of the way Italian sounds too, but that’s probably biased considering his Italian background. But T’Challa’s mention of the difficult to translate language sparks an idea for Tony. “The translation issues, would that give a person a lack of understanding when reading about new concepts? Because I’m at science, _very_ good even if its not me field of study, but I have _no_ fucking clue what your science looks like because it makes no damn sense.” Or at least the translations don’t.

T’Challa frowns for a moment before he retreats into his room, returning with a text in his hand and he skims it. “Yeah, this would make no sense in English. And what would form coherent sentences would do little to provide context for the rest because the literal translations are… lacking,” he says.

He’s going to regret this, he _knows_ he’s going to regret this, but as usual he makes an impulsive decision. “Can you teach me? The language I mean,” he clarifies.

The last thing he expects if for T’Challa to look delighted.

*

As a general rule Tony has made the assumption that Wakandans don’t know English, or at least not many of them do. His evidence is that he hasn’t heard anyone speak the language so when someone addresses him in English and the voice isn’t familiar he jumps in surprise, frowning as he looks around. “It was me who spoke,” an older woman says and Tony’s eyebrows draw together.

“You speak English?” he asks, surprised more than anything.

The woman smiles slyly, “most of us do, but we have little use for the language here most of the time. Americans,” she says, shaking her head a little.

“What would you know about America?” he asks, more confused. Why learn a language the country has less than no use for? T’Challa and Shuri make sense, or at least in recent events learning the language makes sense, because they will have to deal with international affairs. Random citizens, not so much.

His question gets him another knowing smile, “more than you think. Shame California sunk, I rather liked the West Coast,” she says and Tony frowns, trying to do the math on the woman’s possible age. By his estimations the youngest she can be is old as _fuck_. “How are you?” she asks, apparently done skirting around whatever subject she’s looking to get to.

He raises an eyebrow, not sure how to take that. “Uh, fine I guess,” he says honestly. It occurs to him that if she asked him that three weeks ago he would have given a totally different response but now… well, he _is_ fine. Shuri is hilarious and happy to teach him about her technology and they’ve discovered that he has a talent for software that she doesn’t have. Or at least she thinks she doesn’t have the talent- Tony has faith in her abilities. They also discovered that they share similar ideologies in regards to progress technologically and otherwise. And T’Challa… well he’s actually pretty lovely. He’s patient, a little shy due to being unused to being disliked, but he’s also willing to accommodate for Tony. Its not what he expected and he doesn’t really know how to react. How does a person react to being treated well when they expected blatant mistreatment? He supposes grateful would be most people’s response, but he doesn’t like the idea of being grateful for basic human decency. Which leaves him at a loss mostly.

“Are you?” the woman asks and Tony’s eyebrows draw back together again.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asks.

She considers him for a moment, “well, you _were_ used as a method of _trade_ between countries. I understand this treatment is fairly normal to you but here we don’t accept that kind of treatment here. I can’t imagine what T’Chaka was thinking.” She mumbles the last bit more to herself than Tony and he raises an eyebrow, surprised at her speaking out against the king. He’s gathered that that’s unusual for Wakanda given how the king is generally received by those around him. What surprises him more is the obvious nature of the respect people have for the king- respect that’s not generated out of fear either. Its clear the king treats his people well and its just as clear that they dislike disagreeing with him.

But they don’t really know the whole story. “I appreciate the worry but the king has his reasons, though we’re in agreement on his methods. I don’t care for the way I got here but being here isn’t so bad.” Two weeks ago that would have been painful to admit but he’s always been an evidence-based thinker. The evidence has shown him that, despite the absolute disrespect in his being traded off for political ends, neither T’Chaka nor T’Challa took any kind of interest in personally tormenting him. Or any other omega for that matter.

His companion looks surprised at this, “you don’t buy into your culture’s assumption that you’re lesser for being an omega,” she states more than asks.

Tony shakes his head. “I’m a scientist- I look for evidence before I believe whatever I hear. There’s no evidence omegas are lesser in any other condition than the ones that remind them that they’re considered worthless.”

“An internalized bias based on stereotypes. Its something we figured out when our omegas came back with some strange opinions,” she says. Tony squints because _where_ were the omegas coming back from? And obviously their opinions didn’t last given the general culture around them here.

“America is still in the dark,” Tony says, rolling his eyes. “I’m curious though, why ask if I’m okay?”

She considers him for a moment before sighing. “Wakanda wanted nothing to do with you marrying T’Challa. truth be told I’m not sure he agreed either, but he loves his father like most of the rest of us do. Half of the country wanted nothing to do with the potential ramifications of opening up to the world, but the other half thought marrying off an omega to royalty was archaic and offensive. It sends the wrong message to our omega population- that our rights are only there when convenient to the king. So I wanted to see if you’re okay,” she says.

Tony lets out a sharp laugh, nodding. “I like you. Had I met you a month ago I probably wouldn’t have hated it here so much because _that_ was great. Pretty sure T’Chaka was self aware in his decision though, which doesn’t do much to excuse it, but at least he didn’t make the decision pretending like it was the right thing to do. He just took the easy way out,” Tony says but without malice. It seems to ruffle the feathers of his companion nonetheless but not much.

“Whatever his ends are, will they work?” she asks and Tony nods.

“They’re dependent on me, so yeah they’ll work. Besides America had ends of their own when they sent me here, not sure what exactly but I can hazard a few guesses. They aren’t going to get what they’re looking for. That’s what they get for trading me for political ties,” he says, anger leaking into his tone a little on that last bit. He’s earned that though.

“Dependent on you?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

“More or less. He uh, let me in on a few secrets Wakanda has- said he wanted to put me on equal footing with T’Challa. He’s a good man even if his politics could use a little work,” he says.

*

T’Challa does not want to press his luck but he’s not exactly known for curbing his impulses. Or at least he used to be known for his lack of impulse control, now that’s less common behavior for him. He knocks on Tony’s door, surprised when he answers it right away and even more surprised when Tony actually looks pleased to see him. Of course that’s where it all goes wrong and instead of responding like a normal human he lets out this wheeze noise, “hi,” he finally squeaks out, reminded of the time he did literally the exact same thing to poor Nakia and he curses his stupid mind for betraying him like this.

Tony bursts out laughing though, “now there’s some of the alpha stupidity I was expecting. Come in, I’m trying to translate words,” he says, grinning at T’Challa in a way he’s never gotten before.

“Did you… talk to someone or something?” he asks, confused by the lack of suspicion he usually gets from Tony.

“I did- lovely older woman with some interesting political opinions that explained some omega history to me. And the history of the Dora Milaje, which I think is _fascinating_. Anyways since it’d be a lot easier to just _read_ on the subjects instead of happening across random citizens I figured I should maybe work on learning the language,” Tony says, walking over to a large pile of papers spread around his bed. Interesting considering he shares a preoccupation with technology with Shuri. “What?” he asks, obviously noticing T’Challa looking at the papers. “Writing it down helps me remember things better- that’s science. Plus I don’t really like language learning programs so,” he says, shrugging at the papers.

Out of curiosity T’Challa picks up one of the papers and looks over it, wrinkling his nose immediately. “Oh it can’t be _that_ far off,” Tony says in his own defense.

T’Challa gives the paper a sad look, “I have met _cats_ that can translate better than this,” he says and Tony makes an offended noise.

“It _so_ isn’t that bad!” he says, scandalized.

“If you were intentionally trying to say that goose peanuts are reaching orgasm than no, you’re not that bad,” he says..

Tony frowns at the paper before taking it back. “There’s no way that’s what that- how the hell could I have managed to screw up _that_ bad?” he asks softly.

“What were you trying to translate?” T’Challa asks.

“My name,” Tony admits, looking away in shame and rightly so considering T’Challa really has no choice but to start laughing.

“I am introducing you as ‘goose peanuts reaching orgasm’ now because that is hilarious,” he says.

Offended Tony snatches the nearest paper off his bed and hands it to T’Challa, “fine, your new name can be whatever I wrote on that,” he says. T’Challa takes the paper and looks at it, wincing.

“I can’t say that in public,” he says, wondering how Tony managed to mangle his language so badly.

His reaction interests Tony though because he all but leaps forward to see his own words, looking at the paper in T’Challa’s hand like it would help him understand the language he clearly has no grasp on. “What’s it say?” he asks.

“I am not telling you, you’d say it and then I’d have an entire country of people angry with me for teaching you offensive terms,” he says. That’s a headache he has no interest in but Tony continues to pester him, obviously invested in offending the Wakandan public.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't quite as long as I'd like, but its here!

The call is somewhat unexpected and when Tony notes who it is he rolls his eyes but he answers the phone. “Tony,” Maria says fondly and, as messed up as it sounds, he actually thinks she misses him. “How are you?” she asks.

He gives the phone a disgusted look for a moment before bringing it back to his ear. “I’m in a third world textile country mom, how the hell do you think I am?” he snaps, not having to fake his anger. It makes his lie easier- he’s always been a bad liar.

“I’m sure its not _that_ bad,” she says and he doesn’t fake his incredulous snort either because she has no _clue_ , just a misplaced faith in Howard. He has no idea why either, but he guesses that maybe years of systematic abuse might break a person down enough to do whatever you want. Or at least that’s what he tells himself mostly because he doesn’t really want to know his mom is just as willing to sell him off as everyone else is.

“Oh what do you know?” he mumbles. “Why are you calling?” Might as well get to the point, she probably has an agenda. Or someone else does and she’s just the one to talk to him.

“I’m calling to talk to my son,” she says, clearly offended. “I haven’t heard from you in almost two months,” she adds.

Yeah, and whose fault was that? He doesn’t say that though, instead he sighs. “If you wanted to keep contact maybe you should have sent me to a country with internet,” he snaps. He already knew what America thought of Wakanda. Might as well let them believe they’re right.

“Well you seem to have figured something out, your phone is working again,” Maria notes.

No, it isn’t that the phone is working again, its that Tony made sure that no call from America could reach him until recently. His parents don’t get to treat him like livestock and then act like he’ll take their calls. And from the log in his phone his mom tried to call several times. He’d like to think she just wants to talk but he knows logically that only half those calls would have been made for that reason. “I’m a genius,” he says in way of an explanation. Once Rhodey told him that the only reason he sucked at lying was because he actually lied. The best liars, he said, told the truth. At the time Tony had no idea what the fuck that even meant considering telling the truth wasn’t lying, but after considering what exactly he was going to tell America about Wakanda he learned on the fly. Turns out Rhodey is right- the easiest way to tell a lie is to tell the truth. Or more accurately avoid telling a lie to begin with. Lying by omission.

“How are you really?” Maria asks and Tony sighs. And this is where things are going to get difficult…

“I’m bored, confused, and trying to learn a language that makes no fucking sense,” he says in the same clipped, annoyed tone he used earlier. None of it is wrong, but there’s no mention of the cat that’s taken a strong liking to him, following him around everywhere because that’s a thing in Wakanda apparently. There’s no mention of T’Challa and Tony’s being… impressed with him. He’s gotten to know T’Challa better and he likes him actually, and when he asked T’Challa about his father’s political ends regarding him and how he came to agree the discomfort on his face told Tony more than his words. He could have been faking, but Tony doubts he’d try and hide his discomfort if that were true. And obviously there’s no mention of Shuri, who he’s also growing more fond of as time passes, and her _incredible_ advancements and intelligence with everything but especially vibranium. Because he can’t mention any of that, not without compromising Wakanda.

“You’re learning Wakandan?” Maria asks, obviously surprised.

“If I want to figure out what the fuck is happening in this country I don’t have a choice,” Tony points out. Its mostly true though now that he’s paying attention to the words spoken around him he’s noted French, Spanish, Italian, Xhosa, the native Wakandan of course, and a handful of other languages too. When he asked T’Challa about it he skirted the subject, which means he’s stumbled into another Wakandan secret but he’s got plenty of time to figure out how this country works.

“You pick up languages fast, I’m surprised you haven’t already learned basic phrases,” she says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Maybe I would have if I had been sent here voluntarily. I spend most of my time in my room,” he snaps. Again, not a lie but that’s because he can’t read Wakandan. He can’t really go anywhere if he can’t read and his attempts at translation both with technology and his own understanding of the language were… not good. The worst part about it all is that book on conspiracies, which is apparently much funnier in the native tongue.

“Tony…” Maria starts but Tony shakes his head, forgetting for a moment that she can’t see him.

“No mom, you don’t get to act all empathetic with me now. If you really gave two shits about me you wouldn’t have let me be used as a fucking political tool. But apparently you care just as little as Howard, or less,” he snaps before hanging up. The burst of anger is unexpected but earned, he supposes.

The knock on the door makes him jump in surprise but he walks over to it, opening it to find T’Challa there looking nervous for a half a second before it turns to worry. “Are you alright?” he asks with more care than most people have his entire life. It makes Tony step back for a moment; blinking away tears he didn’t think would spring up. “Hey, did I-” T’Challa goes to move a step forward but stops halfway through the motion and takes a step back, letting his outstretched hand fall away. It’s a surprisingly considerate action and Tony clenches his jaw to keep his stupid emotions under control.

“Sorry,” he says, “my mom called.”

T’Challa clearly doesn’t understand the explanation because he frowns. “That’s… not a good thing?” he asks and Tony shakes his head.

“Not when I know she most likely has some kind of agenda. And I have a lot of pent up anger,” he mumbles, surprised when T’Challa laughs.

“Sorry, its just that I already do that. Your anger is… spectacular,” he says, shaking his head. “But… if you like I have a distraction on hand,” he says, lifting a basket.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “are… you asking me on a date?” he asks, surprised.

T’Challa ducks his head a little in embarrassment, “I suppose so,” he murmurs and Tony grins, nodding.

“Yeah, lets go.”

*

T’Challa has no idea if Tony only decided to go with him because of his bad day, or if he would have said yes regardless, but he’s all but ecstatic nonetheless. It takes a few moments for him to relax, settling into his pace beside T’Challa and talking freely. “I’m just saying your language makes no sense,” Tony tells him.

“Only because you are having a difficult time grasping it,” T’Challa says. “You will pick it up soon enough, I’m sure.” It’s a difficult language to learn; especially from English- a good portion of Wakandan has no English equivalent. Tony’s being lost makes sense though T’Challa is sensing a level of perfectionism from Tony that might make his lacking ability to figure the language out feel more personal than logical.

Tony makes a face, “I hope so. It kind of sucks to be somewhere you can’t understand the language.”

“That had to be frightening,” T’Challa says softly, “being shuttled off to a place with a language barrier that, for all you knew, I would have as well.”

That earns him a small laugh, “oh you have _no_ idea,” Tony murmurs.

“I don’t,” T’Challa admits freely. “I can’t even imagine that really. Nothing like that would ever happen to me. I’m sorry you had to go through that, and that I was complicit in it. That was unspeakably cruel,” he says honestly. He hadn’t been thinking of Tony though, he’d been thinking of Wakanda and that is a new cruelty all together. There are plenty of ways to keep this country safe without being needlessly cruel to others. Tony doesn’t deserve to suffer because Wakanda needs to remain hidden from America in particular.

It takes him almost four paces to realize Tony has stopped walking and he stops, turning to face Tony. “You actually mean that,” he states more than asks and T’Challa nods.

“Of course I do, why else would I say it?” He’s long grown out of handing out apologies he doesn’t actually mean. It did little more than make him look like an ass later when he repeated behavior he didn’t see an issue with. That and he’s always hated bad public apologies- they should be handed out when necessary, not whenever political figures assumed the public wanted to hear one.

Tony lets out a small, almost shy smile. “Thank you for that,” he says softly. “And thank you for being genuine about it.”

Its not, T’Challa thinks, something that deserves thanks but it has become abundantly clear that Tony has dealt with so much abuse that he’s become accustomed to it. No one should ever have to live like that and T’Challa will ensure that Tony is never abused again, even if it involves him admitting uncomfortable truths. That is what is fair.

He nods to Tony and smiles back a little, “come with me, I have plans,” he says, outstretching his hand more out of habit than anything but when Tony takes it he smiles wider, threading his fingers through Tony’s.

The place he brings Tony to is a sacred section of the vibranium mountain but the view is what T’Challa wants Tony to see. He’s travelled in his time, though not to America, but if its anything like what remains of Britain its not very pretty. Most places he’s been held nothing to Wakanda mostly due to a lack of resources to fix the increasing environmental problems whereas Wakanda had vibranium and later Shuri. Between the two they have faired better than most every other country in the world and he wants to share a little of that with Tony. He gently pulls him along through the mountain until they get to their desired location and T’Challa smiles when Tony looks awed.

He walks forward, dropping T’Challa’s hand as he does and he goes to the edge of the opening in the mountain. “How is any of this even possible?” Tony whispers.

T’Challa walks forward, looking out at the sun setting. “Vibranium, but mostly Shuri. She’s been inventing since she was a child- so have I- but the way her mind works,” he shakes his head, “she probably saved us from a much worse fate.” They had been struggling when Shuri was born; T’Challa remembers the environmental disasters that seemed to be happening on an almost weekly basis. And then when Shuri was six she started listing solutions that, predictably, no one really took seriously at first but then someone got desperate enough to test her ideas. Since then people took her much more seriously. And since _then_ she has become the leader in technological and environmental development because she is invaluable to the country.

“Yeah, I already figured that much out,” Tony says. “But _how_?”

“I… I don’t know, I can’t keep up with her most of the time. I’ve seen what you can do too, you’re also much more talented than I am in regards to environmental technologies.” He’s more advanced where travel is concerned, but part of that is Shuri’s help and part of that is a genuine interest in travel methods that are more efficient than the ones they have. He designed the trains that move through Wakanda, but Shuri made the vibranium stable enough to move it as fast as he designed.

“Not as good as Shuri. I kept America stable, she brought Wakanda back to life,” Tony says, sounding impressed. It endears T’Challa to him because admitting someone had more talent than you in an area you took pride in is difficult.

“Maybe not, but someone holding more talent than you doesn’t mean you have no talent at all. And Shuri has an invaluable source at her disposal- what you did was build the impossible out of scraps over and over and over again. In a way that’s more impressive than what Shuri has done,” he says. Shuri has never had to fight for scraps, nor has she ever had to build anything from them. She could, T’Challa is sure, she’s simply too intelligent to be stopped by a lack of resources, but its not something she’s ever needed to do.

Tony smiles, “thanks for the flattery even if its not true. I haven’t seen a sunset like this in years. Since I was a kid really, and I’m honestly not sure if I dreamed them up or if I actually saw them,” he says, looking back out over the bold colors streaking the sky.

“That’s a shame,” T’Challa murmurs. “My father says that sunsets in Wakanda are the most beautiful in the world.”

“They are,” Tony confirms. “But that’s mostly because everywhere else they look exceptionally gross.” T’Challa raises an eyebrow and Tony sighs. “Atmosphere changes make them look different and all the colors are off. Everything is so much more vivid here.”

“Well, we do like our color,” T’Challa says softly. Its important to them, the same with their patterns, and if Tony’s wardrobe is that of a typical American their fashion is boring and flat in color. Maybe, if Tony will let him, he’ll introduce fun to Tony’s wardrobe.

Tony surprises his by leaning into his side, “so you do. Makes the country beautiful, you know. Like every wall has some kind of painting on it. In America we call it graffiti and people hate it,” he says.

“America hates fun. And human rights,” T’Challa mumbles, earning a laugh from Tony.

“You’re not nearly as bad as I thought you’d be. Kinda pissed me off at first,” he says softly.

T’Challa looks down at Tony, frowning. “Why would that make you angry?” he asks.

Tony shrugs, “sometimes when you’re used to being treated badly when people are nice you don’t know what that means, and accepting they’re just nice is a hard pill to swallow. Thank you though, for being patient with me,” he says, looking up at T’Challa. If Tony would not be offended T’Challa would point out how adorably _small_ Tony is but something tells him that would ruin the moment. Instead he considers Tony’s features- features that are much different from what he’s used to seeing. His skin is far paler than anything T’Challa would see naturally in Wakanda, his nose is thinner, so are his lips, and his stylized facial hair says more about his personality just looking at him than what you’d see from most people. The feature that stands out, though, is his eye color.

Brown is obviously a color found often in Wakanda, but the particular shade of brown that is favored is the one that looks almost topaz in the light. The color is warm and pretty, and framed by Tony’s thick eyelashes it only looks more beautiful. By the time he realizes he’s staring he also realizes that Tony is staring back, head tilted to the side. They stay like that for a long moment and T’Challa stays mostly still, letting Tony guide what happens because that, he thinks, is the easiest way to ensure his comfort.

Finally though Tony leans forward, reaching up a little and he kisses T’Challa softly.


	8. Chapter 8

Shuri looks smug and Tony wants to say something to get rid of her grin but he’s got nothing. “Why do you look like a pissed off bird?” she asks and behind her T’Challa snorts, mumbling something under his breath in Wakandan that makes Shuri start laughing.

“‘Scuse me, seems how I don’t speak that language and only manage to say offensive things when I try does someone care to explain what just happened?” he asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

T’Challa gently pushes Shuri’s shoulder, “show him the bird, he looks just like it but not rainbow colors,” he says and Tony snorts.

“That’s a pretty massive difference,” he points out.

“Stop being so grumpy, its not our fault you look like this bird,” Shuri tells him, holding out her phone so he can see the picture. He’s not sure what he’s more pissed off about- the fact that he actually _does_ look like the bird or the fact that T’Challa and Shuri obviously read his agreement on his face and start laughing all over again.

“If it was black and white it would be perfect,” T’Challa says and Shuri grins, pulling her phone back for a moment. She taps at the screen for a few moments before turning it back around. Tony gives her a _look_ because she’s made the picture black and white, which does help with the resemblance.

“You two are the worst and I don’t like either of you,” he tells them, picking his stuff up off the desk he had been working at and he walks away. T’Challa and Shuri only seem to find this more amusing.

*

The cat does her best to get in Tony’s way, which he supposes is normal for cats, but its also annoying. “Concrete, can you not?” he asks as she jumps into his lap for the fifth time in just as many minutes. The cat shows no repentance for her actions and sits on Tony’s book, curling her feet under herself and doing that squinty eye things animals do when they’re pleased.

“I’m happy to see she likes to sit on your books as much as she likes to sit on mine,” T’Challa says, smiling at him from the door.

“Well I’m not, I’m trying to figure out a new language here and this furry little beast keeps sitting on my book,” he says, giving Concrete a _look_. The cat starts purring for no apparent reason and Tony sighs, taking that as his cue to pet her.

T’Challa smiles, “maybe it’s a sign you should take a break,” he says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “I’m sure you have a plan, then?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“If you would like. I thought… I thought maybe we could go on a trip- a small one around the country. It might be useful for you to acquaint yourself with the different groups in Wakanda,” he says. He’s obviously nervous suggesting it because it implies a lot of time alone together and it’s not lost on Tony that T’Challa would have to translate basically everything not to mention he’d be away from the only area he’d recently grown comfortable in. Its asking a lot but what convinces Tony to go is the fact that T’Challa clearly knows this- he presented it more as an idea than anything.

“Okay,” he says and T’Challa’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Really?” he asks, shocked.

Tony nods, “Yeah. I… I trust you,” he says softly.

*

 _I trust you_. The words play over in T’Challa’s head more times than he thinks is strictly necessary but its just so _fantastic_. Tony still feels skittish to him, like he’s still waiting for something awful to happen but he’s hoping to at least put Tony more at ease if he doesn’t figure out why Tony is so… standoffish. Beyond that it really is useful to teach Tony about the geography and politics of Wakanda- its something he needs to know for practical reasons if nothing else. And T’Challa is hoping that Tony’s natural charm will rub off on the locals now that he’s not hiding in his room.

“I told you this would happen,” his mother says from the doorway and he turns to face her.

“You seemed quite sure,” he says. Almost too sure really.

Ramanda smiles, “I have more experience than I would like with the subject,” she says and T’Challa frowns.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“I mean politics in Wakanda are not always smooth- you know the history of alienation the River Tribe has had. My marriage to your father was to solve it and I hated him for it too. He had more patience than I deserved but I did grow to love him. Its hard not to,” she says, smiling wistfully more to herself than T’Challa. Yes, he is well aware that his father is a good man and a great king. Sometimes it keeps T’Challa up at night because that is a lot to live up to.

“When I am king marriage will _not_ be used to solve political problems. It’s a bad idea and its cruel to uproot people from their lives to use them as political pawns,” he says, shaking his head.

“Do you forget the history of the Dora Milaje?” she asks and he rolls his eyes.

“Of course not- but our luck in marriage working out in the end has got to be running thin. Besides that all of those marriages happened _in_ Wakanda- Tony is American and he’s temperamental. I may approve of your choice from a personal standpoint but from a political one the man is a hot mess.” Tony plays things close, too close, and his allegiances change on a dime- that’s not the kind of person he’d choose to solve a political problem. Not unless he needed some very out of the box thinking and tech help.

“He is from the most powerful family in America, his lack of allegiance made him ideal because patriotism wouldn’t cloud his opinion of our country, his intelligence is a benefit for obvious reasons, and his position makes his very well suited for giving us information on America. His personality flaws are easily tempered by someone with a similar but different personality. You would get along- you _do_ get along. He is ideal in all the ways we needed the same way I had been ideal. Both of us resented our husbands for it and both of us eventually figured out that our marriages were not punishments. This was planned,” she says.

Too much, T’Challa thinks, has been left to chance. His father made his decisions on what works in Wakanda but this is not Wakandan politics. It occurs to him that he’s considering an angle his father hadn’t when he arranged this absurd marriage. Even if he doesn’t regret it, not for a moment, this is not what he would have chose if he had the chance to do it again. If he had the chance he would have dated Tony like a normal person and _then_ married him, not accepted his use as a political tool. “I am aware that this was planned, but planning around what _could_ happen instead of what is _likely_ to happen. Tony was not likely to trust me, it just happened that way.”

“And knowing that is why you will make a worthy successor for your father. He is used to Wakanda and you will adjust to the world. Have fun on your trip with Tony- he’s excited even if he’s doing his best to hide it,” she tells him, smiling. She leaves then and T’Challa frowns, not sure he believes he ever be worthy to take his father’s place. Truthfully its not something he’d like to think about.

He’s in the middle of deciding what he should bring with him when Tony knocks on his side of the door before sticking his head in T’Challa’s room. Concrete runs in, immediately running over to T’Challa’s bed and jumping into the bag sitting on it. Predictable cat behavior and it makes him smile. “Can I bring the cat?” Tony asks and T’Challa frowns.

“Obviously the cat is coming, we can’t leave her here. She’ll scream at everyone until you come back and that is very unpleasant,” he says. He has experience- the first night Tony had been gone in the mountains the cat screamed at him until five in the morning and then she gave up but only for an hour. Then she screamed for nearly another full day and T’Challa is sure the only reason she had been quiet afterwards was because she must have lost her voice. By then she had taken up being a nuisance in other ways and Tony had returned.

Tony snorts, “that’s true love, when cats like you. My country prefers dogs but they’re stupid animals, loyal to whomever gives them the slightest of positive attention. Cute as hell, but dumber than stumps. Cats only love people that don’t suck.”

“I’ve always been under the impression that true love is when a cat remains in the bathroom with you while taking a shit even though that poor thing’s nose must be burning,” he says, not thinking his words through but Tony laughs.

“Just so you know I’ll never love you that much. Concrete might though,” he says.

He plucks the cat from his bag and drops a scarf in her place, earning a dirty look for his efforts. “Its not the cat’s affections I am vying for,” he says with maybe too much honesty.

“Well you’ve got my attention, but my affection is sure to follow,” Tony tells him, walking into his room and sitting on his bed, pulling the cat from T’Challa’s bag again and settling her in his lap. The cat is much less annoyed about this turn of events even if she continues to eye T’Challa’s scarf as a new seat.

The image of Tony in his bed petting a cat is nearly surreal but here he is, comfortably in T’Challa’s space and _willingly_ in it. “I would like to hope so- I am quite fond of you. Stubborn as you are I like your passion and I appreciate your strong sense of self,” he says softly.

Tony considers him for a moment, “most people don’t like those aspects of my personality,” he says.

“Most people lack taste, then,” T’Challa says back immediately. When you are a prince people do not stand up to you- he’s had that his whole life and here is some random omega from a country that hasn’t treated him well who is perfectly willing to say what he thinks. And unlike most he engages with T’Challa both because he wants to- for reasons aside his status- and because he is not en danger of losing his sense of self to T’Challa’s status. He had thought Nakia would be the only person he would meet that could do that and he’s pleased to be wrong.

“So,” Tony says after a few moments of what seems to be surprised silence. “Where are we going first?” he asks.

“Merchant Tribe- they’re the closest and probably the least hostile. I figured I would ease you into things,” he says. And hopefully he will be able to talk to W’Kabi before dropping Tony in his lap. His friend had not approved of all of this and while T’Challa had agreed to some existent the reason for their disagreements on the subject were not at all the same.

Tony smiles a little, “I appreciate that. So who’d be the most hostile then, you know, for mental preparation.”

“Boarder Tribe, but they’re last,” he says. “But I’m sure things will go well. You will be in the company of a prince, after all.” It’s a poor reason for people to behave, but a reason nonetheless.


	9. Chapter 9

T’Challa had thought it would be a good idea to dress him in Wakandan clothing and Tony had agreed, which is why he’s currently wearing a suit with some very beautiful embroidery on it. T’Challa looks him over for a few moments before he walks away, returning a few moments later with a brightly colored scarf that he carefully wraps around Tony’s neck before smiling. “You look lovely,” he says.

The scent from T’Challa’s scarf drifts up to his nose and if it were anyone else, or maybe if he were in America, he’d think the scarf was some kind of ploy to scent mark him but this is T’Challa and that behavior is not something Tony has come to expect from him. So instead of irritation or anger his lips tip up some and he shifts the scarf on his neck a little. T’Challa, who has obviously just clued into the fact that this is _his_ scarf, one with _his_ scent on it, widens his eyes as the implication of Tony’s shifting the scarf occurs to him.

“I… we… should go,” he says softly, struggling to maintain composure.

Tony grins wide, “guess we should,” he says, pleased he’s found an easy way to tease the prince. You could take an alpha out of a shitty culture but apparently they still cared about scent.

*

T’Challa is surprised by Tony’s openness and… and his happiness. He’s never seen Tony happy, not really, but he’s quite fond of the way Tony’s eyes light up when he smiles. When Tony reaches for his hand nearly unconsciously and threads his fingers through T’Challa’s his smile grows wider. “You will like the merchant tribe and they will like you too,” T’Challa tells him. “They are the group that is the most open to change and adaptation. Plus they are funny.” It helps, T’Challa thinks, that he lives closest to that particular group. To them he is more of a person and less of a figure that comes occasionally but ultimately leaves again. Its not that the other tribes of Wakanda have anything against him, its just that they don’t know him as well as the merchant tribe does.

It makes them much more open to his ideas, thoughts, and opinions and he’s hoping that they will be more open to Tony too. There are others- too many people really- that take issue with Tony’s American status but T’Challa is hoping that his presence will at least minimize any affects of that. People would not want to piss off the prince after all and if he can use that as a way to make life easier for Tony he will.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Tony says distractedly, looking out the window at the land as they dive by.

“Have you ever seen grass that green?” T’Challa asks, curious. In his experience grass is rarely green outside this country but maybe in America things looked different from the parts of Africa and Europe that he’s been to.

Tony shakes his head, “I’ve never seen anything like Wakanda at all. Its really beautiful here,” he says.

“The most beautiful in the world,” T’Challa agrees. “I am happy to share that with you,” he says softly.

Tony looks over then, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. “I’m happy to be here,” he says.

The comment touches T’Challa deeply and his lips curve as he brings Tony’s hand to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to his knuckles. “I like to hope that I can continue to make you as happy as I possibly can.”

“Is it really that important to you?” Tony asks, head tilted to the side in genuine curiosity.

“Of course it does, Tony. It means _everything_ to me- it is partially my fault for your presence here to begin with. I took you from your home, from everything you love and care about; it is my responsibility to ensure that you don’t actually lose everything in the process. Besides that I actually like you. You’re smart, and passionate, and _stubborn_.” Probably a little too stubborn but T’Challa likes that about him too.

Tony snorts, “most people don’t like my stubbornness,” he says.

“From what I have gathered about your country most people dislike the fact that you have free will- their opinions are useless to me.” And in general, he thinks, but he leaves Tony to gather on his own that he means that too.

“And this is why I like you,” Tony tells him, grinning.

*

“Come look at this,” T’Challa tells Tony, gesturing for Tony to follow him. He’s been pointing things out as they went, sometimes explaining some cultural significance, sometimes explaining how Shuri’s technology changed the landscape around them, and occasionally he gets a personal story too. He likes those stories the best because he finds out all sorts of interesting things about T’Challa. Like the fact that he’s not fond of vegetables or meat, which resulted in him eating nothing but fruit for an entire summer much to his mother’s annoyance. Or that as a child T’Challa could only have been described as stunningly stupid given that he took pride in tormenting jungle cats for fun. The panthers didn’t find T’Challa’s pranks as funny as he did and his father found his pranks even less amusing. Which resulted in him being grounded for a year and a servant in Bast’s temples as an apology to the cats and their cat god. Tony finds the entire thing hilarious mostly because no panthers were harmed, just startled by a stupid ten year old boy.

Tony follows after T’Challa through some tall weeds that make his nose itch a little but he ignores that in favor of T’Challa’s excitement. “What exactly is ‘this’?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Come and see for yourself,” T’Challa tells him, laughing when Tony smacks a lingering weed away from his face. When he turns to face T’Challa though he’s shocked. He’s standing on a wooden dock in a body of water that’s unlike anything Tony has ever seen- or smelled. In America water is easily detectable because of the scent alone, but this water doesn’t seem to have a particular smell, at least not an easily detected one. But it’s the clarity of the water that really has his attention.

He walks forward slowly and somewhat cautiously thanks to the usual warnings he has to deal with when near water but T’Challa doesn’t show any sign of worry at all so he picks up his pace a little. “Its so clear,” he says softly, looking out into the water as he stops by T’Challa’s side. “Shallow though.”

“Actually its not. Its nearly five hundred feet deep at its lowest point, but is around two hundred feet deep in most places. But the water is so clear it looks shallow,” T’Challa tells him. “When things first began to go wrong with the environment this was the first place we saw it in. The water got muddy and fast; we had no idea why at the time. But we used this lake as a way to test how affected our environment was from the changes we made. Eventually Shuri figured out a way to make it clear again. Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asks, smiling down at Tony.

Beautiful, yes. Tony has never seen water like this outside of a few history books. “This is incredible,” he says softly, crouching down to get a closer look. There’s no sign of any contamination, nothing that would be out of the ordinary.

T’Challa crouches next to him and dips his hand in the water, swirling it around a little while Tony watches with wide eyes. This isn’t possible in America; the water is too contaminated for that. Its probably his shock at T’Challa handling the water that distracts him long enough for T’Challa to flick water at him. He blinks rapidly, frowning at T’Challa for a moment before narrowing his eyes. For a moment T’Challa looks worried, like he’s done something wrong so he leans up a little and Tony takes that opportunity to push him into the water. T’Challa sputters a little as Tony laughs and he gives Tony a dirty look. “Really?” he asks, looking much like a drowned cat.

“Go big or go home,” Tony says, grinning.

T’Challa grumbles a little and pulls himself over to the dock, preparing to pull himself up but at the last minute he reaches out instead, dragging Tony face first into the water. When he comes back up T’Challa starts laughing. “Your hair looks like its painted on to your skull,” he says, doubling over a little as he laughs harder.

“Yes, that’s what my hair does,” Tony mumbles, pulling himself back onto the dock. “My outfit is ruined.”

“I thought if I had to be wet and miserable we should all be wet and miserable,” T’Challa says, pulling himself back onto the dock too.

“We should toss Concrete in for good measure,” Tony suggests and T’Challa snorts.

“If you want that cat to loath your existence by all means, toss her in the lake,” he says.

Tony smiles and shakes his head, “so I guess we’re going to take a small break while we dry off, hmm?” he asks.

T’Challa nods, “that’s probably for the best. You should let the cat out of her carrier, she’s probably quite angry and she could use a leg stretch too.”

Turns out he’s right about that, but it takes them all of five seconds to lose the cat and another two and a half hours to find her yowling in a tree that T’Challa has to go try and rescue her out of. He’s pretty pissed when he gets close to the cat only to have her jump out of the tree and walk over to Tony like she hasn’t just majorly inconvenienced them both for hours.

*

The merchant tribe, as it turns out, is actually pretty excellent and they took Tony’s sad attempt at a Wakandan greeting with pretty much no grace. He appreciates that they just launch into poking fun at his pronunciation mostly because he learns the right way to say the words. What he appreciates more though is the immediate criticism of Tony’s outfit.

“Why would you make him wear that? Its so stuffy,” the man to his left says.

“And it has to be hot. You know in America they aren’t used to the kind of heat we get here,” the woman to his right points out.

“Right!” the man to his left says. “I forgot about that, not only is the poor man overly formal but he will have heat stroke in that,” he says, gesturing to Tony’s outfit.

T’Challa squints hard at that, “heat stroke?” he asks, obviously very skeptical.

“Yes, the average temperature in New York is twenty five degrees in the summer. Its much hotter here considering that,” the woman says.

“ _Heat stroke_?” T’Challa repeats, squinting more.

“Why do you keep repeating that?” the man to his left says, frowning.

Tony sighs, taking pity on them both. “What exactly do you think I _do_ every month?” he asks. It takes an embarrassingly long time but eventually they both clue in.

“M’Koni, you idiot,” the man mumbles, clearly pinning this oversight on his friend.

“Excuse you, you thought of that just as little as I did! Men,” she mumbles, shaking her head.

T’Challa shakes his head at them both and makes introductions before dragging Tony through a mess of politics and cultural knowledge. He does, however, learn a lot about how wealth works in Wakanda and its nothing like what it does in America. “We had nothing but ourselves. If we had a system like America’s we would see nothing but strife and war- so we did our best to redistribute when possible though T’Challa still technically holds a good amount of the country’s wealth,” N’Baza says.

“Though its mostly housing and land- things people use more than I do,” T’Challa adds.

“Your system heavily relies on your royalty not being shitty people,” Tony says. “Give the kind of wealth you have to anyone in America and they’d hoard it, not let people use it. Seems kind of… naïve to have a system that runs like yours.”

N’Baza raises an eyebrow at T’Challa, who gives him an irritated look. “America is basically a dystopia- everything I have read and heard about the country is fodder for your average young adult novel,” he says.

“Oh, you guys have that weird subsection of YA too?” Tony asks, surprised.

T’Challa nods, “in Wakanda the genre always includes the children overcoming outsiders who are looking to take over the country with their dystopian world order. But yes, we have that too. Though in America your dystopian novels must read like either instruction manuals for those in power or instruction manuals for those looking to end the misuse of power. And in Wakanda’s defense your views of it are because you are suspicious of your leaders, you expect mistreatment from them. In Wakanda people do not settle for that- its happened of course- but a tyrant does not last long here. If our system begins to run badly _everyone_ suffers. So when things take a turn for the worst we fix the problem, and if the problem is a tyrant, well.” He leaves it at that, letting Tony put the pieces together himself.

“How the hell did you even end _up_ with a system like the one you have now?” he asks. Because from what he’s gathered its highly organized and goal oriented. Political debate must be less cumbersome here than what Tony is used to. Proceedings take months if they go fast, but usually take years. He wonders how that works for Wakanda and resolves himself to ask about it later. Along with their science and technological development and environmentalism.

Everyone in the room turns to give T’Challa a _look_. “You didn’t even explain the origins of Wakanda? What kind of useless husband _are_ you?” M’Koni asks, shaking her head. “Can’t even teach the poor man how to _speak_ , forgets to tell him the origins of the country- I hope you are a more organized king or someone will have to challenge you to the throne,” she says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “challenge you?” he asks.

“Ritual combat, yes. Its usually how we get rid of the aforementioned tyrants. Don’t look at me like that, I know you are thinking that someone could just deny any right to a challenge but that is just not how our culture works. Denying it would be unthinkable and it would destroy the credibility of any leader. It would cause more chaos than accepting it and hoping to win,” T’Challa tells him.

He snorts, “in America they’d probably just shoot you, fuck the combat thing.”

N’Baza frowns, “America lacks honor- you don’t bring a firearm to ritual combat. That is cowardly,” he says.

Tony shakes his head, laughing. “In America the saying is the opposite- its don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.”

M’Koni squints at T’Challa, “what kind of shithole did you rescue him from?” she asks, looking pretty horrified.

It only makes Tony laugh harder. “Oh, its funny because they think _you’re_ the shithole. Guess it just goes to show that every country thinks they’re the best regardless of whether or not they’re right. Except Wakanda kind of _is_ right from what I’ve seen. You guys have water you can swim in,” he says. This is a definite plus even if Tony’s swimming skills are limited. But they’re better than most people’s skills- most didn’t have indoor pools to learn in the way he had.

“America thinks _this_ is the shithole and they don’t even have water you can swim in? The _nerve_ ,” M’Koni says, shaking her head.

“In their defense they think we are a textile nation, not what we actually are. I’m assuming Tony has not told them any different,” T’Challa says, sparing Tony a glance. “And I didn’t rescue him so much as violently pull him from his home and then expect him to be grateful for it. Its quite cruel actually, though as you can see he has a great capacity for forgiveness.” He doesn’t look proud either- he looks upset. Like the notion of him rescuing Tony is not something he wants perpetuated.

“Why _wouldn’t_ he be grateful, compared to where he’s from this is basically a utopia,” N’Baza points out.

“A utopia that decided a marriage without one party’s consent was a good plan to solve political problems- that is _not_ utopian, that is terrifying. Imagine what his life would be if I were not a good man. I refuse to accept that he should be grateful for being treated with respect simply because he has known worse. That is _appalling_ ,” T’Challa says in a strange tone of voice. It takes Tony noting the immediate reserved nature of those around him to figure out why the reaction was so strange. It’s the voice T’Challa must use in political discussions, the one that suggests he’s not just stating an opinion; he’s actively enforcing one.

“America could learn that lesson too. I’ve heard people tell entire groups of minorities they should be grateful they aren’t as oppressed as they used to be. Hey, I guess our lack of slavery means shorter life expectancies and higher incarceration rates shouldn’t be brought up. Its not all bad though- the food is great and the country itself is beautiful. Not like Wakanda, but there are areas that are just as stunning if you know where to look. And the coffee is _way_ better.” The culture, when its not toxic, is fine too but it takes looking to find some of the better bits. Tony is fond of humor in particular though thankfully Shuri has proven to be hilarious. The food, though, is America’s shining jewel of goodness. Nothing is better than a cheese burger except a couple Wakandan foods and a well made pizza in what’s left of Italy.

“There is nothing wrong with our coffee,” T’Challa says, offended.

“Its basically bean water,” Tony tells him.

T’Challa frowns, “Tony, _all_ coffee is bean water.”

*

Tony must be tired because he passes out in T’Challa’s bed basically as soon as he lies in it, curling into a ball with Concrete by his side. He sighs and sets his stuff down before he goes over to Tony and carefully shakes him awake. Tony makes an annoyed noise in response to this, glaring at T’Challa. “What?” he mumbles, obviously unimpressed.

“I figured you would like to sleep in your own bed,” he tells Tony, smiling at just how _grumpy_ he is.

“I’m fine here,” Tony mumbles, shutting his eyes again.

T’Challa sighs, “guess I will sleep in your room,” he murmurs, content to leave Tony be but he speaks before T’Challa gets far.

“Just sleep here,” Tony mumbles at him, flinging an arm across the bed as some kind of signal to sleep there.

“Are you going to regret what you said when you were sleepy tomorrow?” T’Challa asks, raising an eyebrow. Tony lifts his head and gives T’Challa an unimpressed look and he sighs. “Alright, I will take that as a no,” he says, climbing into bed beside Tony carefully, still leaving plenty of space for him. Tony seems to disregard this entirely and crawls over, curling into T’Challa’s back and earning an irritated meow from the cat for disturbing her place at his side.

T’Challa ignores the cat though because he’s surprised. For a moment he’s frozen, but then he smiles, turning over and wrapping an arm around Tony. He presses his face into T’Challa’s chest and within a few moments he’s asleep. T’Challa, however, is too happy to sleep. Instead he rubs Tony’s back softly until the cat head butts his hand and then he pets her instead.


	10. Chapter 10

“Do we have to go?” Tony murmurs, looking up at T’Challa.

T’Challa sighs, running his fingers through Tony’s hair. “No, technically we don’t but it would be useful for you to get to know the country and people _are_ expecting us. But if you’d like we can go home,” he says softly.

Tony laughs at T’Challa’s misunderstanding, “I meant we could just stay in bed forever but you know, in bed forever could happen at home,” he says.

“You called it ‘home’,” T’Challa says, smiling wide.

He shrugs, “if I’m honest its more of a home than anything I’ve ever had,” he says. Better than Howard’s house, better than any of the homes he tried and failed to make for himself. He leans up a little, pressing a soft kiss to T’Challa’s lips. “It also helps that you’re pretty hot,” he adds.

“Pretty hot? I will have know that I am the epitome of Wakandan beauty,” T’Challa tells him, sticking his nose in the air.

Tony snorts, “Wakandan beauty standards would probably change just to suit your face,” he says and T’Challa makes an offended noise that basically proves him right. “In your country’s defense they have taste,” he says, kissing T’Challa again. Pleased with this development T’Challa lays back, bringing Tony with him. He goes, allowing T’Challa to pull him forward and he swings a leg over T’Challa’s hips, straddling him. T’Challa makes a pleased noise at this.

“I’m beginning to rather like this plan of staying in bed,” he murmurs to Tony.

*

“We are headed to the mining tribe,” T’Challa tells him. “They will be suspicious, probably harsh though less so with me around. But I thought I should break up the more… difficult tribes rather than sending you into them all at once,” T’Challa explains.

He nods, “any chance those were the people that weren’t pleased with my presence in that vibranium train?” he asks.

“That would likely be them, yes. There would be others too, people from the metropolitan areas around the mountain but they would sooner side with the miners than you,” he says. “They will likely be less hostile with me standing next to you, though.”

“Doesn’t matter if they aren’t- they can’t really say anything I haven’t heard before. Besides that I guess they have a right to be suspicious.” Americans were suspicious of more people for less reason than the average Wakandan.

“Having a right to be suspicious is no reason to be cruel, Tony. And just because you are used to mistreatment does not mean you should accept it. You deserve better than that,” T’Challa tells him, looking over at him for a moment.

“You know most people just tell me I have a chip on my shoulder,” he says. Usually in a snide tone and usually while looking down on him either figuratively, literally, or both.

“You do, but from what I’ve learned you’ve earned that chip. If people treated me the same way they have treated you I would also be suspicious of those around me. And unlike everyone _else_ around you you have mostly internalized that suspicion,” T’Challa says.

Sure, but that’s because its easier not to mention safer to keep an outward suspicion without actually doing much to act on it. Keeping mostly to himself means he’s less likely to get into trouble not that it always works out that way. He sort of has a big mouth. “I actually lived a pretty good life. I mean yeah people consistently underestimate my ability to do literally anything but that’s better than that plus being poor, from a shitty neighborhood, a woman, and any race but white. All things considered I’m lucky.” He’s seen what poverty alone could do to people- no one survived conditions like that, not really. Thank god T’Challa is rich because Tony is not meant for life as a poor person. His experience with Rhodey is about as close as he ever wants to get to that, thanks.

“Just because people have lived worse lives than you doesn’t mean you haven’t suffered. And someone else suffering more doesn’t do much to help you, does it? The miner tribe will behave themselves,” T’Challa says in a determined voice.

“I appreciate your standing up for me but really, its nothing all that new, I can handle it,” Tony tells him.

“I know. But you shouldn’t have to. We should probably let Concrete stretch her legs though, before she starts yowling at us again. Clearly she gets her vocal nature from you," T'Challa says.

Tony eyes the cat carrier and raises an eyebrow, "pretty sure a cat can't get anything from me genetically. I hope," he mumbles more to himself than T'Challa. Probably because he has a strange image in his head of a cat-like version of himself that he never needed in life.

"You know what I meant," T'Challa says. "No go get the cat and make sure she's on that harness. I don't feel like climbing trees."

*

The hostility isn’t open but Tony can feel it lingering under the surface. T’Challa had been right about people behaving themselves around him at least but when his back is turned Tony gets dirty looks he doesn’t appreciate. Its some random kid that’s the one with enough guts to say what everyone is thinking though.

“You’re not going to tell anyone about the vibranium, are you?” the child asks, suspicion high on his features. He’s dressed in the various reds and oranges that seemed to be prevalent here in particular. The merchants had preferred purple from what Tony gathered though he’ll ask T’Challa about it later.

“No,” he tells the kid. “I don’t really have much motivation to,” he adds.

“What, you don’t want to bring glory to your country?” the kid asks and Tony snorts.

“If my country wanted glory from me they wouldn’t have sold me off like livestock in an attempt to get the vibranium that, as far as they know, doesn’t exist,” he says in a bitter tone.

A woman to his right raises an eyebrow, “so you have a problem with being sold off like livestock, but accepted like livestock?” she asks, tone harsh. T’Challa winces a few feet away and Tony senses that he’s just hit some kind of sore spot with these people but he has no idea what and T’Challa doesn’t look much willing to help him out with this. Useless husband.

“I have a lot of problems with that too, thanks. But that’s between me, T’Challa, and the king.” Its not like the rest of the country is much affected by his marriage, not if he’s unwilling to give up Wakanda’s secrets anyways.

“And what exactly do you think of T’Challa and the king?” she asks. Tony looks over to T’Challa, confused on what the hell is happening here but he’s resolutely not looking at Tony. He rolls his eyes at T’Challa’s lack of help, which gets a pretty surprised reaction from the people around him, kid included.

“I think T’Chaka is a good man with some… misguided solutions to his political problems. And T’Challa has owned up to his part in all this and apologized. Its doesn’t really change how I got here, but it helps that he at least understands what he’s done,” Tony says honestly. He doesn’t know if that’s what anyone is looking for, if they’re looking for anything from him _really_ , but when the people around him seem to relax a little, giving him somewhat impressed looks rather than hostile ones he’s fairly certain he’s done something right.

The people gathered around exchange a few looks before speaking. “You are not what I expected,” the woman who first spoke- Tony assumes she’s important to the community or something- says.

“What were you expecting?” he asks.

“Someone demure and accepting of their own oppression. We are not ignorant to global stereotypes,” T’Challa tells him.

“Though apparently _some_ of us are willing to play into them,” the woman says to T’Challa, tone harsh. He winces again but says nothing in his own defense.

Tony opens his mouth to defend him but thinks better of it. Its not like they’re wrong for being angry with their prince for accepting this bullshit ruse of a marriage even if Tony is sure something real is developing out of it. “Is… there a particular reason you’re all so upset about this?” he asks, frowning. There has to be some kind of cultural clue he’s missing, something that doesn’t exist with the merchant tribe obviously given that they expected him to be grateful for his new position.

T’Challa frowns, “you can’t smell it?” he asks and Tony shakes his head. Obviously fucking _not_ \- not over the scent of the sweet flowers around the town they’re currently in anyways. “They’re-” he starts but he’s cut off.

“We can speak for ourselves thank _you_. We’re mostly omegas,” the woman tells him. “Don’t look so surprised- mining is a difficult job for those who are not used to the heat. We’re better suited for the job than most, could you imagine the merchants in there? They would die,” she says, shaking her head and Tony laughs.

“I don’t actually doubt that,” he says. Lovely people, but they didn’t seem the type to do well in that kind of job. Hell despite being ‘better suited’ for the position Tony doesn’t think he’d do well in the mines either.

Thankfully things are a little less tense after that though its clear the people here are still suspicious, of all people, T’Challa. Tony had been expecting more resistance to his presence and while the suspicion around his presence lingers some it mostly seems to have disappeared. “You did well,” T’Challa murmurs to him. “I didn’t anticipate that being a problem at all, the omega thing.”

Tony snorts, “clearly someone hasn’t had to deal with the stereotypes and oppression that comes with it. I’m guessing something like that existed here at some point if these people have some kind of anxiety around my being an omega and married to you,” he says.

T’Challa sighs, “not a long history, no. But briefness aside it was brutal and the omega population suffered greatly. I suppose I can see why our marriage would cause problems considering that,” he says.

“It didn’t occur to you that you’d offend your entire omega population?” Tony asks, floored on how such an oversight could happen. It seems to have bypassed T’Chaka as a problem too for some reason.

“No. We don’t treat hem badly,” T’Challa says.

“Anymore,” Tony corrects. “Anyone who’s found themselves on the pointed end of a government stick lives in fear of that happening again. Next time consider the wider political context of your decisions and how to properly address that before marrying people,” Tony tells him.

“Wakanda is mostly monogamous,” T’Challa tells him and Tony squints, wondering how T’Challa could have arrived _there_ of all places.

“Clueless,” N’Yami says, shaking her head. She’s a tribal leader, he’s learned, and apparently unafraid to put T’Challa in his place, which he finds amusing.

“He’s trying though, give him some credit. I got a cat out of the deal,” Tony says, pointing to Concrete trying to avoid children by remaining in a tree that T’Challa will no doubt have to rescue her from later.

N’Yami looks over to the cat and raises an eyebrow, “did he explain what cats mean here? because the merchants say he somehow managed to miss telling you about the origins of the country,” she says.

Tony laughs, “yeah I got the rundown on your cat gods. T’Challa got a lovely lesson on why America thinks cats are basically evil incarnate.” N’Yami gives him a horrified look and he laughs again. “I’m not saying I agree- I love cats. It’s the rest of my culture that’s weirdly obsessed with dogs,” he says. And any pet that doesn’t act like one had some kind of problem with it, but especially cats. Even the animals in American movies acted like dogs no matter what they were but Tony is most disturbed by horses acting like dogs. Americans needed to put aside their stupid views of cats to attack the real enemy with no soul- the _horse_. Those things, Tony swears, are the most disturbing animals on this planet. Their legs are basically specialized fingers and they run around on their toenails all day. That is the kind of animal that should not be trifled with.

“This one is not awful,” N’Yami tells T’Challa. “But I do hope your father considered the potential fallout of what he now knows.”

“America isn’t going to find out about the vibranium,” Tony assures her. “And if they do, by chance, I’ll make damn sure they don’t get it from me at least. I don’t take kindly to being used as a trades tool.” Though ‘trades’ is probably too nice a term for it- America has a bad habit of taking what they want regardless of agreements. It has, after all, served them well in the past to do that kind of thing.

She considers this for a moment, “good- then you will have no problem ensuring T’Challa issues an apology to the omega population in regards to this absurd marriage,” she tells T’Challa mostly even if the words were technically to Tony.

He opens his mouth to respond and Tony _knows_ its going to be something stupid so he steps in, “I’ll make sure he works on it,” he tells her, smiling. She gives him a nod and walks off, headed towards poor Concrete in the tree.

“Do I really have to apologize?” T’Challa asks.

“For not considering the political implications of a forced marriage to someone in a marginalized population as some kind of political trade? Yes, T’Challa, you do. Just tell them what you told the merchants and that you have no interest in being an asshole to omegas, it’ll help you out in the long run considering you actually _are_ sorry for your part,” Tony tells him.

“I don’t regret it though, and I would do it again,” T’Challa says.

“Even if you had a better way to achieve our relationship?” Tony asks, already knowing the answer to this.

“Well no, I would have preferred an actual relationship with you before marriage but-” Tony cuts him off.

“Then there you go- you thought this marriage would solve problems it probably won’t, made a misguided decision based on it, learned that maybe you did something dumb, and its not something you’d repeat even if you don’t regret what came of the marriage. Just tell everyone _else_ that,” Tony says.

T’Challa sighs, “I hate public apologies,” he mumbles.

“Don’t we all?” Tony asks. They aren’t exactly his forte either but sometimes they’re useful even if most of his public apologies turned into fuck yous. T’Challa is probably more diplomatic than that, though.

*

“That wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be,” Tony tells T’Challa. What he’d been expecting was more… harsh. The suspicion didn’t really leave, but it wasn’t as bad as when he first got to this area of Wakanda either.

“They reacted well, yes. But you addressed their concerns well too,” T’Challa says.

Tony frowns, “I don’t know how I managed when _someone_ was utterly useless,” Tony tells him, giving him a pointed look. Every time he looked to T’Challa for some kind of help or context he was looking anywhere but at Tony.

“I had to let you answer on your own, it would have looked coached otherwise,” T’Challa says.

He snorts, “oh nothing I say sounds coached, trust me. Mostly because I never stick to the cards. That still could have went terribly if I didn’t give whatever arbitrary answer would have been seen as correct,” he points out. Guessing what people wanted to hear in a culture he doesn’t understand isn’t exactly easy.

“I knew you’d tell them what they wanted to hear- they were concerned about omega rights and you’re quite vocal about your rights. It was a situation you couldn’t have messed up,” T’Challa says.

“Yeah, you don’t know me that well. Once I tried to boil water and accidentally blew up my friend’s mother’s kitchen. I fuck up the simplest of tasks but we can just be happy I didn’t manage to botch this one.” He doesn’t want to think of the possibilities of his messing up something so important for both himself and T’Challa. “Does make me wonder where all the insults and vitriol went, though,” he says.

“I doubt people would be so bold as to insult you in front of me,” T’Challa says but Tony shakes his head.

“One guy braved your father so your presence probably only does so much,” Tony says. Not that T’Chaka reacted well to it of course, but if people are determined they’ll say something. So why not now?

T’Challa considers this for a few moments, “how did you react to… whatever before?” he asks.

Tony shrugs, “mostly I ignored it. I can’t be insulted by something I don’t even understand,” he points out.

T’Challa sighs, “I suppose I should have known that, you’ve alluded to it. People probably thought you were weak willed and complicit in your own oppression, then. Its not something they would have found… palatable.”

Tony squints, “so they reacted with another round of oppression? That makes no fucking sense.” In what world- yeah, alright, Wakanda has some issues to work out. “So what, now they’re less willing to be assholes because… why, exactly?” he asks.

“Because they’ve seen the way you _actually_ act. I doubt any of them would have guessed that your lack of a reaction was simply because you decided caring about what people say in another language is not relevant to you,” he says. “They might now.”

That has got to be one of the dumbest things Tony has ever heard and one guy told him omegas were inherently stupid because their brains got baked once a month. Obviously no one informed _that_ guy of basic biology- clearly they’re able to withstand that temperature without actually baking. Because if they did they’d be you know, cooked. “You’d think if they thought I was complacent in my own oppression they’d help me out or go after whoever or whatever was enforcing that oppression but sure, further marginalizing me makes total sense. You should add that to your public apology,” Tony says and T’Challa laughs.

“And there’s the reaction I thought I would see from that. You don’t seem much like a public apology kind of person,” he says.

He’s not. “There’s a time and a place for an apology and its when you mean it, not whenever someone decides that you should be sorry for something,” he says. Otherwise the apology feels cheap and forced. There’s few things he’s apologized for in life because of that, but most of them were things he should have realized were wrong far before he did. Regardless he still hates public apologies and he hates politics even more.

“I agree, but politics does not lend itself to that. And I had no idea that I’d end up apologizing to the omega population in the country,” he says, shaking his head but Tony rolls his eyes.

“Not considering what this marriage would mean to them is pure stupidity on your part. Sorry,” he says, not sounding very sorry at all.

“How was I to know people would be upset?” T’Challa asks.

“Maybe when you used a historically marginalized group as a political tool without actually considering the people in the group and what they think and feel let alone me specifically. I mean come on, who considers a marriage without actually considering the other person _in_ the marriage? Use your head T’Challa, you’re not stupid so don’t act like it,” Tony tells him.

T’Challa sighs, “I suppose you have a point. I just didn’t think omegas here would react… well, like you did in the beginning. They don’t directly share your history,” he says.

They didn’t need to but what would T’Challa know about that? Its not like he’s much had to consider things- clearly betas and alphas didn’t have the same history of oppression here either from what Tony has gathered. Its natural, albeit stupid, that he hadn’t considered things past his own assumptions. “Let me boil this down for you some. Say you’ve had a shitty relationship- maybe it didn’t last long but it sucked while it did. Do you go on acting as if that moment never happened in your life or do you remember it forever and develop trust issues?” he asks. “This is just that on a wider scale. Maybe not a lot of omegas have experienced whatever history of oppression they had in Wakanda directly. But they all have the memory of what happened when they did, and they all worry about that happening again. Especially after what was, by even your admission, a hastily thought out and ridiculous marriage that does more to reinforce their fears than solve them.”

The fact that T’Challa considers Tony’s explanation says a lot about him because most alphas wouldn’t have even let Tony finish his sentence let alone his explanation. Though its Rhodey he had to thank for how to describe how he felt. Tony, like T’Challa, had been kind of a moron about racism and Rhodey honestly has more patience than he should. Tony would have smacked the shit out of himself if their situations were reversed.

“They have to know that history will never repeat itself- not because of me anyways,” T’Challa says, frowning.

“Obviously they don’t,” Tony says. “Maybe you should consider why. And also tell them that they’re reactions to me were fucking stupid.”

T’Challa winces, “to be fair they probably would have been nicer if you weren’t American,” he says.

Tony rolls his eyes, “tell them that’s stupid too.” He has no damn patience for such ridiculous opinions and assumptions, never really has. Which makes his reactions to Rhodey when they first met ironic, but he’d never claim he isn’t a hypocrite. He’s aware of his personality flaws. All his entire personality full of them.

*

Tony curls up with a book feeling like a damn twit because it’s a children’s book but T’Challa insists that he starts with something basic. He’d rather jump straight to the scientific development part of learning this language but T’Challa told him to talk to Shuri about it when he mentioned it. Concrete is not pleased with Tony’s holding the book over petting her and is currently rubbing her face on the corner of the book for attention.

“Go rub your face on other stuff,” Tony tells the cat. She doesn’t listen, which isn’t surprising but Tony still sighs.

“We are going to the river tribe next,” T’Challa tells him, picking the cat up and sitting next to Tony. He settles the cat into his lap and she allows it because it results in her being pet.

“Anything I should expect?” Tony asks, leaning into T’Challa’s side.

“Probably not, no. It’s the border tribe I am most concerned about though a good friend of mine is currently an acting leader in that community. Unfortunately we disagree on your presence in the country so we will see what he cares more about I suppose- my friendship or his opinion that Wakanda never should have opened itself up to the world.” T’Challa sounds conflicted himself but that’s probably because of the personal aspect or the situation.

“Great. So I get a tribe that probably won’t care too much about me and then one that’ll hate my guts. Sounds lovely,” Tony says sarcastically.

“I will be here for you,” T’Challa tells him softly and Tony snorts.

“Damn right you will. Also didn’t you say there were five tribes- where’s the fifth in the tour?” he asks.

T’Challa laughs, “that one you already met. It basically consists of my family- there are more of us obviously but you’ve met everyone who is extra important,” he says.

Well, Tony thinks, that’s a relief. “So uh, is there anything decent I can expect out of the border tribe?” he asks.

“They have really cool blanket things that I can’t remember the proper name of at the moment that also function as digital shields thanks to the vibranium woven into the fabric of the blanket… scarf… You’ll know them when you see them,” he says. “They’re pretty neat.”

His interest is piqued. “I’m so stealing one,” he says, earning an offended noise from T’Challa. “What? I’m American, it’s what we do,” he says.

“Do not do that!” T’Challa tells him.

“What if I leave them Concrete in its place?” Tony asks.

“Tony, no!” T’Challa says, looking horrified.

He sighs, “you just had to suck the fun out of that,” he mumbles. “This is why you like me better,” he says to the cat, who takes this as her cue to crawl into his lap from T’Challa’s.

“Traitor,” T’Challa accuses.

Tony snorts, “she’s not a traitor, she just knows who loves her best,” he says, nose in the air.

“Says the man who is prepared to trade her for a blanket,” T’Challa says.

“For a really cool blanket shield scarf thing that I’m now super interested in because that’s a really weird description of it.” What does it look like? Tony doesn’t know but he wants to find out.

“This is what I get for forgetting the proper names for clothing,” T’Challa mumbles.


	11. Chapter 11

When Rhodey calls Tony is trying his best not to laugh at T’Challa chasing Concrete around looking frustrated with the cat. She slipped her harness and the results, Tony has to admit, are amusing. “Hey Rhodes, what’s up?” Tony asks. His excitement is a little delayed but once it kicks in he grins wide, happy to be talking to his best friend again. He’s _missed_ Rhodey.

“You sound happy,” Rhodey says just as T’Challa nearly trips on a root and narrowly misses eating dirt as the cat doges him again. Tony lets out a loud laugh, earning an annoyed look from T’Challa but he’s fine with that. What’s marriage without a little poking fun?

“You sound surprised,” Tony says to Rhodey.

“Well I mean yeah, your mom said you were pissed.” Shit, right, he forgot about that. He had lies to keep up and- right; he’ll just claim his happiness is due to Rhodey specifically calling.

“Yeah well you didn’t decide to marry me off for politics so I’m less pissed at your call than hers,” he says. It’s not exactly a lie anyways, even if he’s mostly happy with his life here once things settled. It’s hard not to at least like T’Challa when he goes out of his way to be polite and princely plus there’s the added benefit of being attractive.

“Stupid choice on their part,” Rhodey says. “I told them you weren’t going to cooperate.”

His parents had consulted Rhodey? This is news and Tony frowns, “did it not occur to you to give me a little warning?” he asks. Because this was sprung on him pretty last minute and if Rhodey knew ahead of time and kept it to himself that is a total dick move.

“Tony, I didn’t think they’d go through with it. You’d never do what they wanted anyways- they basically wanted a spy and I knew damn well that you’d be way too pissed off to report back to anyone let alone a government you knew wronged you,” he says. “I thought they’d go with someone else.”

Tony squints at the phone, “so you thought it was a good idea to let someone _else_ go through what I did? And since when do you or anyone else even care what’s in Wakanda?” he asks. What the hell even _is_ that for an argument? Choosing someone else to go be a political pawn over Tony- how could Rhodey even _do_ that to someone let alone _him_?

“Tony, we don’t know anything about vibranium and if Wakanda has something going on we need to know about it,” he says softly.

Need to- what the hell would they need to know about it for? “Any reason for that?” he snaps.

“Well they opened themselves up for some reason,” Rhodey says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Well from where I’m standing it looks like the only thing they opened themselves up to was an attack from a foreign nation that seems to think everyone has the same resource stealing agenda they do. Unlike Americans Wakanda doesn’t stick its nose into everyone else’s business and they don’t have any vibranium, they’re a fucking textile nation. Report _that_ back to whatever asshole wants to know about it. And _fuck_ you for not telling me about any of this,” he snarls, ending the call abruptly.

T’Challa looks over at him with a worried expression on his face and Concrete pads over, rubbing herself along his leg. He picks the cat up and T’Challa looks _unimpressed_ about it but it passes quickly. “I can’t believe she just came to you like that. Next time she escapes you are pretending to be upset so I don’t have to chase her around,” he says. “What happened though?” he asks, tone softer as he speaks.

Tony sighs, “just more bullshit I didn’t need. I’ll be fine,” he murmurs.

“I’m not so sure,” T’Challa tells him and Tony looks up, confused. “I know you will figure things out emotionally, but your friend absolutely knows your lying about being unhappy here.”

He frowns, “how could he know that?”

“Your argument is not one an American would make,” T’Challa says. “Whether any of us realized it or not you’re adjusting to life here well enough that you more align yourself with this country than the one you came from.” He… hadn’t considered that but T’Challa isn’t wrong. Wakanda has been sitting here for centuries and they’ve never stepped out of their small pocket of space even when they had the obvious ability to. They could rule the world but they don’t, they obviously have no interest in it and despite some of the issues Tony has dealt with here he found it hard not to side with the country that’s clearly not interested in stirring shit up.

“What’s that mean for me?” he asks.

T’Challa shrugs, “whatever it needs to I suppose. Its not my business to decide how you feel about Wakanda.”

He shakes his head, “not that- I mean I’m going to continue getting calls and Rhodey could probably glean a lot more than that off our phone call. We’ve been best friends for almost fifteen years- he knows me better than literally everyone else in my life. How do I deal with this?” he asks.

T’Challa considers his words for a few moments before he sighs, “I’m not sure, Tony. This is as new to me as it is to you, but America will be suspicious. If you think of yourself as more Wakandan than American it will look like you’ve got stakes here, which means you’re willing to hide things for us and that’s the truth. I don’t know how to deal with that- I only know about Wakandan politics and America is so different,” he says, shaking his head.

So Tony has learned. People _like_ T’Challa and when they don’t they tell him in a way that’s obviously supposed to be constructive. In America politicians tear each other apart, they weren’t cooperative, and differences lead to divides. Its not that Wakanda has none of that- but the differences and divides were all because of Tony’s nationality, not anything else. The problems here seem so much less pronounced than those in America. And unlike most politicians Tony has met in his home country T’Challa cares about his people and he takes what they say into account.

“I regret denouncing politics now, it would be useful to know how to play their games the way they do but I spent most of my time flipping the board,” he says.

T’Challa smiles, “I don’t doubt that at all. You do that here too, but I think its for the best- Wakanda needs change.” Yeah, Tony knows that too but it seems like the country has a lot less to change than the one he came from.

*

T’Challa is surprised when he sees who’s been sent to him but he supposes he shouldn’t be. “Nakia! I didn’t know you were back in the country,” he says, walking over and giving her a hug. Its been months since he’s seen her around- she’s probably been doing something exciting elsewhere, Nakia’s life is never dull.

She smiles, “I didn’t you were married until I was,” she says, giving Tony a once over. “He’s cute,” she says in Wakandan and Tony immediately gives her a suspicious look T’Challa thinks is undeserved.

“She said you’re cute,” he tells him in an attempt to dissuade the look but it doesn’t seem to do much to sooth Tony’s sudden prickly attitude. “So, how have you been?” he asks Nakia.

“Pretty much the same as always. Made a bit of a mess in China, but don’t worry its mostly fine, Okoye managed to save my ass at the last minute,” she says. T’Challa raises and eyebrow because he hadn’t been aware that Okoye had left the country recently. But she’s always had a soft spot for Nakia so if she needed help he has no doubt that Okoye would go to her. “And how’ve you been?” she asks, sparing Tony a half a seconds worth of a glance.

He knows what she means to ask because he knows her well. “Fine mostly, Tony is adjusting well,” he says, looking down to Tony to speak but he remains uncharacteristically silent.

“You’re a lot more quiet than I expected,” Nakia says to him and all she gets is a dirty look in response. T’Challa raises an eyebrow at the odd behavior but then something occurs to him.

“He hasn’t had a very good day,” he says. Things had been fine until his friend called and then Tony had gotten upset, understandably, which he supposes explains his strange behavior now. Nakia raises and eyebrow but Tony speaks before T’Challa can.

“America being stupid. As usual,” he mumbles under his breath. Its more than that but he doesn’t fault Tony for keeping his best friend’s potential misuse of trust to himself.

Nakia’s eyebrows climb again but T’Challa takes the opportunity to distract her for Tony’s benefit. “I didn’t think the river tribe would send you, not I mind of course,” he says.

“Why not? We have history and I honestly didn’t believe anyone when they told me you got _married_. You really are not the marrying kind,” she says. He hadn’t been, not when they were together. Half of their attraction to one another had been based in both of them being… free spirits, he supposes. Though the term fits Nakia better than him in their youth.

Tony frowns, looking between T’Challa and Nakia. “Are we even talking about the same guy? Because T’Challa is probably one of the most dependable people I know,” Tony says.

Nakia laughs, “what did you do to convince him of _that_? Do it with the rest of the country while you’re at it,” she tells him, laughing harder as she walks off. Tony gives her an irritated look as she goes and T’Challa gets the feeling that things just went very bad and he has no idea how let alone how to fix it.

*

Its probably stupid, Tony thinks, to be jealous of Nakia but the moment she was in close proximity to him he could _feel_ their chemistry. Honestly if he had been asked before he got here if he’d be jealous of T’Challa’s exes he probably would have said no. He’s _married_ to the guy so whatever shared history, and there _is_ a shared history, was there it doesn’t matter now. Or it shouldn’t but Tony can’t help the irritation he feels whenever Nakia mentions some offhand comment or joke or _whatever_ that makes T’Challa laugh.

He knows T’Challa has noticed, he’s very observant. But he keeps quiet because his stupid feelings are irrelevant and the turquoise suit one of the river tribe’s elders is wearing is stunning. Unfortunately for him he’d been paying more attention to T’Challa’s observations of his behavior to notice Nakia’s.

“You’re jealous,” she tells him, sitting down beside him on the log he’s currently perched on.

“Am not,” he mumbles, unsure why he’s lying.

“Are so. You shouldn’t be though- T’Challa and I would never work for a number of different reasons. We still care about each other obviously, but that won’t affect your marriage. If I’m honest I don’t think I could affect it even if I wanted to, he’s quite taken by you. Seems to have been by the start,” she says. “Not that I agree with how all of this happened,” she adds.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “you don’t?” he asks, wondering what she objected to. He can sense more than smell that she’s a beta but that’s probably due to his keen attention to that kind of thing. He has no idea how or where that developed from, but it does mean Nakia probably wouldn’t share the miner tribe’s problems with their marriage.

Nakia looks surprised, “no, of course I don’t agree with a marriage that, from what T’Challa has told me, was _forced_ on your end. What kind of monster would agree with that kind of thing? And that doesn’t even touch on the omega thing; I know what America is like. Plus the whole political agenda,” she shakes her head, “this was set up to fail. Not that I’m surprised T’Challa has managed to salvage it. He’s quite resourceful.”

That… surprises him more than he thinks it should. He might not have known Nakia long but she’s been vocal about several different issues from several different places in the world too. He wonders how she knew all that she did but he’ll ask T’Challa about that later. He winces though, “no offense, and I really mean that, but technically T’Challa agreed to all that,” he says. He doesn’t want to admit it mostly because he thinks higher of T’Challa than that, but its true nonetheless so he’s surprised when Nakia shakes his head.

“No he didn’t, and not because I am defending him either. I love him, I do, but he has trouble seeing things past his own position in the world. He likely thought you had the same reasons he did for this marriage, or something similar. I doubt he knew you had little choice but to do what was asked of you, or exactly what kind of position you were put into. I suspect he has an idea now, but that’s because someone else told him. Presumably you,” she says.

Someone else told him first, Tony is sure, but he has no evidence for that. “Yeah, that’s something I know about him. If I’m honest its true about me too. Trust me I had a lot of misconceptions about the world until a couple good friends of mine were nice enough to correct me on them. He’s trying though.” Which Tony appreciates because he’s not used to it and because knowing about the world around you stopped you from saying stupid stuff like ‘what’s poor? Only having fifty thousand dollars in your bank account?’ Rhodey near lost his shit at that and honestly once Tony learned what _actual_ poverty was he can see why he inspired that reaction.

Nakia smiles, “something tells me you didn’t make it easy for him,” she says.

Tony laughs, “no, not really. I’m kind of an asshole,” he says honestly.

“It will be good for him to have someone around who is as blunt as I was,” she says. She remains quiet for a few moments before she speaks again. “The border tribe- you will meet a man named W’Kabi and he will ask you about Ulysses Klaw. I would suggest having an answer, preferably one that results in Klaw in jail or worse. Doing so will gain you their favor and the border tribe holds a lot of power. You seem to have won most of the miners over, this would be a good move for you,” she tells him.

He frowns, “and T’Challa hasn’t told me this because…?” he asks.

Nakia sighs, “because on some level he agrees with W’Kabi. W’Kabi is isolationist- your presence here is something he considers a problem because all your problems are now his problems. He thinks that will upset Wakanda’s balance but he only thinks that because the border tribe has always held respect and value in Wakanda- the river tribe has not been so lucky so I know his views are wrong from a Wakandan standpoint. But from an international one it is unethical at _best_ to keep what we have to ourselves. We can do so much for the world and instead we hide away, keeping things that can change this planet for the better to ourselves. Its selfish and cruel and I want you to convince T’Challa of that. He will listen to you,” she says, passion high in her voice.

Tony shifts uncomfortably, “I don’t know if Wakanda _should_ disclose what they have,” he says, earning a shocked gasp from Nakia. “I agree with you morally, but I know better than most how my country reacts to resources like Wakanda’s. It’ll scare some people, but others will want to take it for themselves. That could break this country- I say that as an American who knows what his country does to those who have resources they want and they’re already sniffing around. They sent _me_ to sniff around and now that they know I’m not sniffing they’re going to get desperate,” he says, willing Nakia to understand.

She doesn’t, Tony can see that right away. Instead she shakes her head, “T’Challa told me you were shocked by the sight of clean water, that you were hesitant to even go near it at first because water in America is unsafe. That is horrific, Tony, and we could have prevented that. We know how to clean the water, make the environment safe again. It is cruel for us to prosper with all that we have and refuse to share it with everyone else around us on some absurd assumption that they will take what we have. They _should_ take what we have- what we have is safety and stability; they would be right to want that too. Taking from us doesn’t need to end in instability for us- people can’t steal what is already being freely given,” she says.

He wants to argue, but she makes a point so he sighs. “And when people get greedy, and that _will_ happen, what then?” he asks.

“I don’t care about that. We should not let the citizens of this world suffer because some corrupt government officials and some greedy individuals will inevitably try their luck. We help people because they need it, and we deal with what happens when someone tried to take too much when we get to it. That is the cost of doing what is right. _Please_ convince T’Challa of that, you are in a better position than I was,” she tells him.

“How though? You’ve obviously been all over the world,” he points out.

“But you lived an entire life there. Bad in Wakanda is the absolute nicest place everywhere else and T’Challa doesn’t know that. I think he thinks I was exaggerating, or maybe that when I said things were bad I was comparing them to Wakanda. I wasn’t, and he won’t make that mistake with you,” she tells him. “You have an opportunity to do what no one else can- _please_ take it.”

Tony slumps in his seat, “and here I thought being jealous of you was going to be the emotional high point of my day,” he mumbles.

Nakia smiles, an unexpected change in tone, “so you _were_ jealous. I knew it- T’Challa thought I was imagining things but I know jealousy when I see it,” she says.

“Doesn’t help that you look like… you know, _that_ ,” he says, gesturing to her. He’s actually not sure he’s seen anyone as pretty as she is and he’s pretty attractive himself.

She rolls her eyes, “honestly that is not a reason to be jealous of me. And you don’t have a reason to be either- even if you weren’t married T’Challa and I probably have too many differences of opinion to work out. That and he prefers proximity and I am not at all willing to give up my travels,” she says. There’s more, Tony can tell, but he doesn’t ask. Its none of his business anyways.

*

T’Challa frowns as Tony spreads out over their bed, Concrete marching around on his back like she owns it. “Nakia his this strange opinion that you’re jealous of her. No idea where she got it from,” he says, shaking his head and expecting Tony to agree with his assessment that this was absurd.

Instead Tony sighs, “I was. Am,” he amends, wrinkling his nose a little and shifting his position, earning a dirty look from Concrete as he does so.

“ _Why_?” T’Challa asks, genuinely unable to fathom why Tony would be jealous of _Nakia_ of all people. Or anyone else for that matter.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “do you have eyes that are currently functioning as expected?” he asks.

“Yes?” T’Challa asks more than states because he’s unsure what Tony is really saying with that statement.

“Oh my _god_ T’Challa- she’s literally the most attractive human on his planet and you two get along _ridiculously_ well and have a history. What’s _not_ to be jealous of?” he asks.

T’Challa frowns, “our relationship failed, Tony. Plus you’re quite attractive too,” he points out.

“I might be attractive but I don’t look like I was sculpted by _gods_ , T’Challa. And failed relationships can be solved if you solve the problems that caused the relationship to fail to begin with. I’m sure you and Nakia could work it out,” he says.

“I don’t think so. And even if that was possible I don’t want to- I’m happy with you,” he says honestly.

He doesn’t expect Tony’s reaction, though he’s expected very little of Tony’s behavior in the last day, so he’s surprised when Tony gets up and walks over to him, standing on his toes and pulling T’Challa in for a kiss. Concrete lets out an annoyed meow because Tony had dumped her on the bed when he got up, but they both happily ignore the cat’s disgruntled reaction.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright- so I finally got past the tour of Wakanda and back into some plot stuff. That tour was only supposed to be like 2 chapters max but then got a lot longer so...
> 
> Anyways I've got some kind of plot in here now!

Tony is surprised when Nakia finds him in the morning with food- some kind of weird fruits he’s never seen before and he thought he had been through with weird new things- and smiles. “How was your night last night?” she asks.

He frowns, “pretty sure you can smell how last was,” he says, earning a mildly disgusted look in response.

“I did not need that much information- fine would have been sufficient,” she tells him.

“And you’ve come to find me be _cause_?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

She tilts her head to the side, “do you always assume people have an ulterior motive?” she asks.

“Well you do, so get to the point,” he says thought not unkindly. He can already take a guess at her goals are but he figures he’ll let her fill him in.

Nakia sighs, “fine, I do but we can get to that later. I thought I should warn you that I’m going with you to the border- T’Challa and a few of the river elders thought it would be a good idea,” she says.

“What the hell am I about to walk into?” he asks, eyebrows drawing together. If T’Challa thought it was reasonable to bring his ex along for a road trip and so did some obviously trusted others how exactly were these people going to react to him?

“Nothing good. I trust you looked up Ulysses Klaw?” she asks and he nods.

“Moderately decent arms dealer- I actually have a vested interest in finding that asshat too,” he says. When they had discovered Obadiah selling Tony’s designs on the side Klaw had been a name that came up but Tony hadn’t gotten a first name- just his last name and the barest glimpse of a picture. Imagine his surprise when he looked the guy up to find it happens to be the _same_ guy.

“Good, because making some kind of effort to find him will be the only way to gain the favor of the border tribe. Or at least W’Kabi- the rest will follow,” she says.

“And you’re helping me _why_ , exactly?” he asks. He can take a guess at that too but he chooses to let her explain herself.

“Ideally I’d like your help too,” she tells him, surprising him with her honesty.

Well, despite the nice change in pace he’s still unsure of her goals. “Nakia, I get where you’re coming from but I know what my country alone is like. First of all America likes to pretend whatever resources they steal belong to them, and that doesn’t even touch on the absolute suspicion the country has. Wakanda- you’re all _way_ more trusting than America could ever be. America would straight up shoot America if America thought America was going to stab America in the back,” he says. Nakia laughs but Tony shakes his head, “I’m dead serious- that’s basically the history of militia groups.”

Nakia shakes her head, “not that- just the way you put it. I’m aware of what other countries are like Tony; I’m not a moron. But realistically no army would be able to withstand the Wakandan force and more than that other countries have outreach programs, things they do to help. We could do all that and we could do it better but we sit around and hoard our knowledge for ourselves while everyone else suffers. Its not right,” she says.

“Nakia,” Tony says softly, “people would be terrified of what you have here. If history has taught me anything its that people do not respond well to fear on a wide spread scale.”

“They are _already_ terrified, Tony. Its what drove your country to send you here to begin with- desperation that they could exploit an unknown resource. Extending resources would help alleviate that fear,” she say, tone as soft as his.

“And if someone decides to just… take what they want? What then? What about all of the people in the country, the stability you have here? What I know about this system- its frighteningly efficient and extremely focused on its population. You start stretching resources that people start fighting over and that’s all gone,” he says.

Nakia raises an eyebrow, “is it? America is not nearly as efficient as Wakanda but your system is stable enough despite sharing _your_ resources. As far as greed goes, well. Wakanda has never taken well to outsiders trying to storm in. Only one man in all of history has managed to get in and out alive.”

Klaw, Tony knows, and he’s curious about how that happened. His first instinct is to say someone on the inside was helping- there’s just no other way- but he knows he’s looking at things from an American standpoint, not a Wakandan one. And looking at it in any other way is useless. “From what I’ve gathered Wakanda doesn’t do wars- we’d hear about it if you did,” he points out.

“Survivors are required to hear about wars, Tony, and were none. Many countries have tried. I suspect its why America sent you in place of a soldier- perhaps they thought we were stupid enough to just give you information that could destroy us,” she says even though that’s literally exactly what T’Chaka did. Though, Tony thinks, his risk had been quite calculated and, if he’s honest, it worked well. Granted that kind of plan is a _massive_ risk to take but all of T’Chaka’s guesses about him had been right. Tony isn’t likely to betray the country because he’s more pissed off at his own to care to. And because, despite his knowledge of America’s goals, he doesn’t agree with them.

He wonders how exactly T’Chaka would have known that until it occurs to him that the man has access to his life in America. He’d know Tony had a change in heart about weapons around two years ago and has been quite vocal about his opinions on weapons since then. And if he thought he could take advantage of America’s suspicious nature and Tony’s exploited situation… Apparently the king is smarter than Tony gave him credit for.

“I mean, T’Chaka did kind of do that. But I have good reason to believe he knew I wouldn’t say much,” he says.

Nakia smiles, “because America would do what it needed to in order to spite America for stabbing America in the back,” she says and he laughs. Yeah, good point.

*

T’Challa sighs, giving Tony a nervous look like he expects something bad to happen and Tony squints. “What are you looking at me like that for? I can’t solve this,” he says.

Concrete lets out a loud meow from the back seat of the car and Nakia sighs, “this cat is very annoying,” she says.

“Just let her out, she’s upset that she can’t sit in Tony’s lap,” T’Challa says. Nakia follows his instructions; making an offended noise then the cat bypasses her out stretched hand to go to Tony.

He grins, “take notes T’Challa, this is what true love looks like,” he says.

Nakia laughs a little, “too bad this is all about to go terribly. He’s quite charming,” she says.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Tony mumbles.

“It has less to do with confidence than knowing the border tribe well,” T’Challa says. “But come along- we might as well get this over with. Maybe they will change their minds like the miners did.”

Yeah, something tells Tony that’s not going to happen but he gathers the cat in his arms and gets out of the car anyways, figuring he might as well deal with this. He’s surprised, though, when he’s greeted- and he uses the word loosely- by a small crowd of obviously organized people. A small army, he realizes, and he shifts a little uncomfortably.

“W’Kabi, was this really necessary?” T’Challa asks in a friendly enough tone. Probably to try and break the ice but it doesn’t work.

“You,” the man Tony presumes is W’Kabi says. “What do you know about Ulysses Klaw?”

Tony, because he’s curious and probably incredibly stupid, responds with a snarky comment. “You _do_ know not all white Americans know each other, right?” he asks and T’Challa winces hard at that. Well, he already knew it was a dumb thing to say and now he has confirmation.

“Last I checked you ran in the same circles,” W’Kabi says. “So it stands to reason that you’d know each other.”

Point to W’Kabi for that pointed barb but Tony doesn’t let it show on his face. As misguided as his weapons sales were it wasn’t really the same thing as Klaw’s exploits. It certainly wasn’t _better_ either, but the actions aren’t equal. “We didn’t run in the same circles- he took things of mine to sell too. I’d be just as interested in finding him as you are.”

W’Kabi lifts his lip a little, all but snarling at Tony without noise. “I highly doubt that. He killed my parents,” he says bluntly.

T’Challa looks deeply uncomfortable with this exchange but says nothing for the moment.

Tony sighs. Given the context for his suspicions Tony understands why he’s acting the way he is. “I’m sorry,” Tony says genuinely, unsure where to go from there but W’Kabi makes it easy for him by rolling his eyes.

“Don’t hand out an apology you don’t mean. I know what your country does to other countries with resources they want. They’re _experts_ at destroying governments for their own profits,” he snaps.

Well, he’s not wrong. “Maybe you should learn more about my government and me personally because I don’t take kindly to the mistreatment I get there for being an omega. And I _really_ don’t take kindly to being seen as a political tool before I’m seen as a person. So how about calm your shit and ask questions before you make judgments. FYI I know about the vibranium and have for weeks- if I really wanted to sell you out it would have happened by now,” he points out.

T’Challa frowns and responds before W’Kabi does, “FYI?”

“For your information,” he and Nakia say in sync. They share a look, grinning at each other before turning back to the small army in front of them.

W’Kabi looks Tony up and down like he’s trying to size him up but T’Challa shifts slightly towards him. He notices W’Kabi’s eyes flick over to T’Challa, clearly noting the movement and he shifts back a little. “I hope you know I’m not stupid enough to think America would attack immediately after getting that information,” he tells Tony in a tone that’s slightly less harsh than the one he had been using.

Tony snorts, “he doesn’t know America that well then,” he says to Nakia, who snorts.

“In his slight defense they usually wait a little bit,” she mumbles back and Tony laughs. Yeah, if it suits them maybe. Or whomever is currently leading the country.

*

To say things are going badly is an understatement. Tony mostly ignores the insults but a few were rude enough that even _Nakia_ defended him. T’Challa jumped down several people’s throats and Tony has discovered full face eye rolls are universal in body language so he uses them often. So he doesn’t understand the language beyond, he’s discovered, a few basic words- that doesn’t mean he won’t let these people know he doesn’t care about their insults. T’Challa doesn’t at all appreciate his methods but he didn’t like being treated like crap in America and he’s quickly growing tired of it here too. If he really wanted to end the damn country they’d damn well know about it.

“You will not last,” W’Kabi tells him, sliding up beside him as he sits purposefully on the fringe of the activity. He has no interest in whatever surely political battle T’Challa is currently in and given how offended Nakia looks she must be having a similar discussion.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Tony tells him, looking up at him. Too bad he’s such an asshole- he’s good looking and well dressed. And he obviously speaks his mind too. Usually the combination is something Tony finds attractive but he’s mostly just annoyed by W’Kabi the same way W’Kabi is clearly done with him too.

W’Kabi laughs softly, looking down at Tony, “if you think he will chose you over Wakanda you are delusional,” he says.

Tony laughs right back, “if think the choice is between me and Wakanda _you’re_ the delusional one. Look, you don’t like me and you don’t want me here, I get that- really, I do. I’m not stupid enough to not consider what being American means to someone who isn’t from the country. If you want Klaw though I have a potential plan,” he says. “Gunna involve more Americans though.”

W’Kabi gives him a somewhat disgusted look, “you think that the king will agree when he let him go the first time?” he asks.

“I don’t ask permission but I’m sure if I state my case T’Chaka might hear me out,” he says. More like when Tony tells him what Klaw stole. Well, what Obi stole and sold to Klaw. It stands to reason that the weapons he stole could be used against Wakanda. Plus if America gets desperate they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. It wouldn’t be the first time the country has involved itself with terrorists for their own ends and he’s sure T’Chaka could be swayed to see his point of view.

“You know nothing of Wakanda and what the king will agree to,” W’Kabi tells him, shaking his head.

“And you have no idea what Klaw has of mine. Didn’t we already cover making assumptions before asking questions?” he snaps, irritated with the man.

“Didn’t we already cover you having no right to be here to _ask_ questions?” W’Kabi snaps back. “Make no mistake I will get you out of here and I will warn you it won’t be with all the information you have now. T’Challa might be stupid enough to trust you but I am not.”

He raises an eyebrow, “is that a death threat? Because as far as I know Wakanda doesn’t have mind wiping devices of some kind. And just so you know I don’t do threats either,” he tells W’Kabi. He glares down at Tony but Tony glares back, unafraid and generally used to this kind of thing. This is what he gets from politicians back home all the time, and from Howard. If W’Kabi thinks being large and angry will make him back down he should find a new strategy. The problem, Tony thinks, is that unlike the usual morons he deals with at home W’Kabi is smart enough to find a suitable solution to his problem.

“I’ll do what I need to,” he tells Tony eventually, turning and walking away.

T’Challa finds him not long after with a concerned look on his face. “What did he say to you?” he asks and Tony shakes his head.

“Nothing useful,” he says.

“Don’t lie to me,” T’Challa says. “He said something that made you look especially suspicious, what was it?” he asks.

Tony shakes his head, “I’m not worried about it,” he tells T’Challa because he isn’t. This conversation is proof he’s not going anywhere. Its not like T’Challa asked after W’Kabi’s health and safety.

*

T’Challa finds W’Kabi after Nakia has sufficiently distracted Tony with the rhinos and how Wakanda cares for them. “You don’t look impressed,” W’Kabi says when he sees him, smiling just a little like an old friend might but T’Challa is not in the mood.

“What did you say to him?” he snaps.

W’Kabi rolls his eyes, “he tattled already? Americans,” he mumbles, shaking his head.

“He said nothing,” T’Challa snaps. “Whatever it is you believe is true about him it isn’t.” _None_ of the things anyone thought here were true about Tony- he’s spent all day dispelling everything from stupid misconceptions to wild accusations and conspiracies. He wonders if Tony will find Wakandan conspiracies so amusing if he is the subject of them.

“You are naïve,” W’Kabi tells him. “I can’t believe you’re even indulging this absurd plan, its completely ridiculous!”

“You’re not wrong about that,” he agrees, surprising W’Kabi. “But not because I don’t have faith in Tony or because I am stupid enough to think his being here will result in America backing off. The marriage relied too much on coincidence- it was an educated set of coincidence- but coincidence nonetheless. That’s careless.” Not necessarily within Wakanda, but in a world wide context? Not so much. They are all familiar with Wakanda’s inner workings, they are less familiar with how people from other political structures will react to their new surroundings. Its just lucky, exceedingly so, that Tony reacted the way his parents predicted. “However careless it was, though, I don’t believe Tony is a danger to this country and neither should you,” he says in the tone he adopts in political meetings. Its not a voice he likes using but it W’Kabi will not react to him as a friend he _will_ react to him as a prince.

“You are blinded my your affections!” W’Kabi accuses and T’Challa rolls his eyes, something he’s been reliably informed will not make the person you’re talking to react well, but he can’t help it.

“As if you are perfectly clear headed and objective,” he says. “You are over here filling your tribe’s head with absurd conspiracies about takeovers and colonization when a _single_ person from another country is here. Do you even understand how absolutely ludicrous that is? Even if there were a whole bunch of people from other countries that’s not going to inspire a takeover so much as a suburb,” he snaps. He expects better out of Wakanda than anything he has heard today, and he _certainly_ expects better out of an old friend.

“Were you not paying attention when outsiders were let into every other country _around_ us?” W’Kabi asks and T’Challa resists the urge to roll his eyes again.

“I am aware of that, yes. I took history courses in school too- we were in that class together if I remember correctly. I also happen to remember that those countries experienced a take over, not a single pissed off omega with an extreme vendetta against his home country. You are taking history lessons and applying them to situations that are not even remotely the same.” And even if they were Wakanda is no stranger to people trying to invade- they did not start wars, that is not who they are, but if others wanted to start wars with them they did not win. Ever. W’Kabi would do well to remember the history of his own country before spreading conspiracies around like facts.

“Did we both not read about the Trojan Horse?” he asks, squinting.

T’Challa can’t help but rolls his eyes at that, “something tells me Tony, who is barely taller than five feet, is not hiding an army inside him,” he says.

“I didn’t mean that literally and you know it- stop being obtuse,” W’Kabi tells him.

“Then stop with this ridiculous paranoia,” T’Challa counters.

“You need to put your country first!” W’Kabi tells him.

“I _am_! Its you who is letting your judgment cloud your thinking.” As if Tony’s presence here will result in an eminent takeover from Americans. If anything it might be holding it off some and with any luck his knowledge of his country will be of help to them when they _do_ get desperate and do something stupid.

W’Kabi shakes his head, “you are a _fool_ T’Challa. And you will eventually have to choose- which one will you keep. Your arranged political trinket or the border tribe?” he asks.

T’Challa shakes his head, “I am not choosing between Tony and this tribe. This tribe is choosing between its prince or its insolent _brat_ of a leader. You are foolish if you truly believe they will side with you,” he tells him, looking over at W’Kabi. He’s surprised by the tone of his voice and so is W’Kabi, but perhaps he should have expected the voice of a king when he decided it was acceptable to rile an entire tribe full of people up over nothing.

*

Nakia looks up at Tony and then over to T’Challa. “Have you ever looked at something happening and thought to yourself ‘that’s an impulsive decision happening’?” T’Challa asks Nakia.

She nods, “usually with children, but I am not surprised that you married a special kind of man,” she says.

T’Challa sighs, “how did you get up in the tree, Tony?” he asks.

Tony carefully shifts and reveals the cat, who had crawled into the branches and started yelling at everything that passed by until Tony finally took pity on her. “Cat got stuck. Now I’m stuck,” he says.

This results in another sigh from T’Challa. “Give me the cat,” he says, stepping closer to the tree and reaching up. Tony leans over and carefully lowers the cat, doing his best to keep his balance. The cat isn’t pleased about this but reacts mostly well as Tony hands her down. T’Challa grabs the cat and hands her off to Nakia. “Now climb down the same way you climbed up- literally reverse your actions,” he tells Tony.

He looks at the tree, then T’Challa. “Yeah ok,” he says, shifting himself in the tree and eyeing the ground. He shimmies to the edge of the branch before launching himself off, using T’Challa to break his fall. Thankfully for T’Challa he has fast reflexes and half catches Tony on the way down, but they still end up flat on the ground.

Nakia looks at him in shock, “apparently his being in the tree wasn’t the impulsive thought,” she says. She remains shocked for a moment before she starts laughing.

T’Challa looks utterly annoyed. “I am going to start calling _you_ Concrete,” he mumbles.

Tony snickers, “isn’t it a prince’s job to catch his citizens?” he asks.

“Not when they are jumping from trees like some kind of strange monkey,” T’Challa tells him. “please refrain from trying to rescue the cat in the future.”

“Will do honey. Good talk,” he says, patting T’Challa’s chest a couple times before standing and taking his cat back from a still laughing Nakia.

“I like you. No one else in the entire country would have flattened T’Challa out like a pancake the way you did. You should give the Doras tips,” she tells him, following him as he walks away.

He grins, “maybe I will. Revenge for being called Concrete,” he says as T’Challa peels himself off the ground.

“I resent that,” T’Challa mumbles, stumbling over to them as they continue walking.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had an interesting day today. I got barely any sleep, have been up since just after 5 am, ended up writing much more of this chapter than intended, and I'm currently wearing a scarf/ blanket thing that reminds me of the border tribe's outfits in Black Panther that my girlfriend and I call 'the cultural appropriation blanket' because its a shitty rip off of Native designs (with no obvious indication of which band they've ripped off from). 
> 
> This also ended up way more plot heavy than I was initially intending- I got stuck after the first scene but then bam, that scene with Tony and T'Chaka flew into my head and I was like 'hello plot filler'. Guess it goes to show I do my best work tired lol.

Tony remains curled up in bed while T’Challa tries unsuccessfully to draw him out. “Tony, they will come around,” he says.

“Will not and that’s fine. Border tribe knows how to make comfortable beds- are these things vibranium too?” he asks and T’Challa frowns.

“No, its memory foam,” he says.

“Not any kind of memory foam I’ve slept on,” he mumbles, flipping himself over and burying his face in the blankets. They kind of smell like T’Challa, which he resents because he slept there too so where’s his scent? And the cat, which smells strangely like baby powder.

He hears T’Challa approach and he can feel the bed dip as T’Challa sits on it. The cat, who is sitting closer to T’Challa than Tony, makes a disgruntled noise but they both ignore her. “I know they haven’t reacted well to you, but they fear what they don’t understand. It would help if they had exposure to you,” T’Challa murmurs, running his hand softly up Tony’s back. The action feels nice; grounding even so Tony lets it sink in a little before he responds.

“It shouldn’t be my responsibility to make them less afraid. Its their job to confront their own bias, not mine to prove I’m not dangerous,” he tells T’Challa. “Besides, if you look at the evidence it is one hundred percent in my favor- immigration has never destroyed a country. And before you say something about conquering or whatever I’m not talking about that, I mean actual immigration. Or even people sneaking into the country. Americans and Canadians sneak across each others borders all the time and the sky is not falling. If people can’t accept the obvious and irrefutable evidence it shouldn’t by problem. Its theirs,” he says.

“How will people learn if they aren’t exposed to new things?” T’Challa asks softly.

Tony makes a face, “why should I have to put up with their abuse and suspicion because they can’t read a fucking history book?” he asks. After a moment of silence Tony sighs and sits up, “I get what you’re saying T’Challa, but the information they need is already out there- they can find it themselves. This always seems to happen- some random majority group acts like it’s the minority group’s job to explain why they deserve to be treated with basic respect and decency and to put up with as much abuse as necessary until they’re finally seen as an equal person. Do you know how exhausting and horrific it is to explain you’re not lesser to people who resent your existence every day all day long for your entire life? I do. I’m not doing that again.” He has no patience for it- not in America and not in Wakanda either.

T’Challa sighs, settling his hand on Tony’s waist, “you’re right. I don’t really… I’ve never been in that position and perhaps I have taken advantage of people’s patience with me,” he murmurs, looking away.

“So have I. We’ve probably all been on the receiving end of some kind of explanation of something we don’t understand, its just that expecting people to waste their time explaining to you why they should be treated well is a shitty thing to do. And most people have the capability to do their own research so they should do that before freaking out or asking stupid stuff.” God knows Rhodey had been too patient with him when they first met, Pepper too. To this day he can’t believe he thought poverty was a myth as a kid and that people who weren’t really poor were just whining. Not his proudest moment, but the moment Pepper and Rhodey thought was the most amusing thanks to the sheer absurdity of it.

T’Challa lays down beside Tony, burying his face in the blankets. “W’Kabi is going to do something stupid, I can feel it,” he mumbles into the mattress.

“Maybe, but there’s not much you can do about it,” he tells T’Challa, rubbing his back. “If you throat punch him though wait till I’m there to witness it. I’ve always wanted to see someone get throat punched.”

“I am not going to throat punch W’Kabi,” T’Challa says, laughing. “Why would that even happen?”

Tony shrugs, “I don’t know but I think you should keep your options open, fulfill your husband’s dreams, its your job now. Seriously, I don’t want Wakanda to start freaking out on itself but if I get to watch someone get throat punched then I’m not totally opposed to it either,” he says.

“I’m not throat punching W’Kabi for you, Tony. That’s so ridiculous- how did this even become a dream of yours?” he asks, shaking his head with a laugh.

“What? You’ve never had like… a weird thing you’d want to see. Next on my list a president being assassinated but we haven’t had one shitty enough that I wouldn’t feel bad about seeing them die. I just want know if America will end up with another JFK or something. You know, lots of conspiracy theories and all that,” he says.

T’Challa snorts, “you are ridiculous. But I have always wanted to see what would happen to a tyrant in Wakanda. Probably tossed off a cliff during the ritual combat but you know, could be different. Also I’ve always wanted to ride a panther but if I tried that it would eat me, and I would deserve it,” he says and Tony throws back his head and laughs.

“Yeah, I’m surprised they didn’t eat you when you decided pranking them was a good idea. You’d be that idiot we see in television shows about animals that gets mauled to death,” he says.

“Yeah, probably. Once I decided to chase flamingoes around and in the process I disturbed some bees. As you can imagine it did not end well,” he says.

Tony shakes his head. “You make no sense at all, but I kind of love you for it,” he tells T’Challa.

*

T’Chaka frowns as Tony explains himself and he can _feel_ the king’s disinterest. Its not that it actually shows, its just the lack of reaction he has to Tony’s words and Tony just doesn’t get it. “You realize this will not gain favor from the border tribe, right?” he asks and Tony tilts his head to the side, confused.

“You think this is a popularity contest? That has nothing to do with it- I don’t want their acceptance, I want their weapons and manpower. Did you not hear my explanation?” he asks, confused.

T’Chaka sighs, “I did, but I have good reason to believe that Klaw will not be able to get into Wakanda again,” he says.

Tony squints, “based off _what_ evidence?” he asks. The king may have his reasons but Tony wants to hear them.

“Leave it be, Tony,” T’Chaka tells him but he shakes his head.

“No T’Chaka- if he’s out there this country is in danger. If America senses that I won’t give them the information they want, and they _have_ , then they’ll have no problem turning to a terrorist to do their dirty work. Look up the history of the Taliban- they’ve done it before. Why are you not more worried?” he asks.

“I said _leave_ it,” the king tells him in a firm tone Tony is sure is the one he uses on his subjects but Tony has never been good at following rules and this is just senseless arrogance on behalf of the king.

“What are you hiding?” Tony snaps, clearly surprising the king. This, Tony gathers, is not the kind of thing a Wakandan citizen would do but maybe they should. Questioning leaders isn’t always a bad thing and even in a country that operates heavily on cooperation they should have a level or transparency in the actions of their leaders.

“I am not hiding anything and you are out of line,” T’Chaka tells him, straightening himself a little and giving Tony a _look_. One he recognizes in the way T’Challa addresses people he thinks have overstepped their bounds.

Too bad, he thinks, because something is going on here and he’s damn well going to find out what. “You’re clearly hiding something if I’ve pressed your buttons like this- you’ve never spoken to me like this and I doubt you would unless I was too close to a truth you don’t want to admit. So what is it that makes you so sure that Klaw can’t make his way back here if the offer wasn’t good enough?” he asks. He made it in and out once- it stands to reason that he can do it again.

“Klaw does not know what he’s doing,” T’Chaka snaps and Tony frowns, quickly piecing things together.

“If he doesn’t know how to get in how’d he manage to get in _and_ out?” he asks and T’Chaka clenches his jaw.

“I judged your emotional intelligence to be low- clearly I was wrong about that,” he mumbles angrily.

“No, you didn’t. I’m just good at pressing buttons and following basic logic. If Klaw didn’t know how to- are you telling me that his stunt was an inside job?” he asks, realizing probably too late that that’s the only logical explanation for how a foreigner with no knowledge of a high tech isolationist country would be able to pull something like that off. T’Chaka’s harsh wince is what confirms it though. Tony grins, “looks like I finally found a flaw in your system of cooperation. If you functioned more like my government lies would come easy and finding out information like this wouldn’t be so simple. You should work on that,” he says.

T’Chaka shakes his head, “Wakanda does not run on lies and backstabbing simply to prove a point to our opponent without ever considering the population you’re supposed to serve. That is not our way. And in Wakanda people do not question their king like an insolent foreigner who is sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong,” he tells Tony in a low warning tone that Tony ignores.

He leans forward a little into T’Chaka’s space. “If you didn’t want me in your business maybe you shouldn’t have rubbed my nose in it. This is _your_ problem and if you think whoever it was that helped Klaw get into this country didn’t tell him about the defenses he’d encounter along with a bunch of other useful information than you’re fucking _deluded_.” Out of character is what this is- even the king’s craziest plans have had some kind of decision making behind them but this is just senseless and… well, totally illogical. “What kind of person would you have held so much faith in that you’d think they’d keep Wakanda’s secrets even when committing treason?” he asks more to himself than the king but he knows right away that he’s onto something with the question. “The Dora Milaje?” he asks but the king doesn’t respond. “Border tribe?” he asks and nothing. He looks over, considering things for a moment before a thought occurs to him. “A family member?” he asks, hitting his mark when T’Chaka glares at him.

“You are _testing_ my patience,” the king hisses at him, a surprising amount of venom in his words but this is the kind of politics Tony is used to. The king is in his battlefield now and he’s losing terribly.

“If you really wanted to retaliate you would have,” Tony tells him and the king steps closer.

“You have no _idea_ what I’d sacrifice to keep this country safe,” he tells Tony.

“Actually I do. Clearly the answer is family- you all but told me that. But why would a family member even bother to betray Wakanda- what purpose would that have if they’ve never left the country? And why Klaw and the vibranium, what was the goal?” he asks. He’s missing pieces, several of them, but T’Chaka obviously isn’t willing to give them up. It’s out of sheer luck that Tony has gotten as far as he has in figuring this out.

T’Chaka clenches his jaw, “get out of my chamber rooms,” he tells Tony, a final warning in that low, dangerous tone.

He raises an eyebrow, “or what? You’ll kill me to shut me up? I don’t doubt you would- or that anyone here would if they thought it was the only way to keep Wakanda safe. The problem with using a person as a political pawn with a trigger happy country though is that America wouldn’t care whether or not I was cooperating with them. They’d take my death as a direct act of war just so they could get the answers they want themselves. And I doubt you’re willing to put _that_ on the country,” he says.

T’Chaka shakes his head, glaring at Tony with more suspicion and anger than Tony suspects has ever been on the man’s face. “You are _insidious_ ,” he tells Tony, who snorts.

“No T’Chaka- I’m American and I’m used to government lies in a way that doesn’t allow you to skirt by with half truths the way you obviously have with people who put a lot of faith and trust in you. How does it feel to know you betrayed the trust of your entire country to cover what I’m _sure_ is a personal mistake?” he asks, head tilted to the side.

“You know _nothing_ ,” T’Chaka snaps at him.

“I know more than the rest of your country and that’s got you threatened. I suggest you get ahead of this before it comes around and bites you in the ass- I’m tying to _help_ ,” Tony tells him.

“You are tampering with politics you don’t understand!” T’Chaka tells him, shaking his head sharply.

Tony rolls his eyes, “no T’Chaka, _you_ are. You can’t even lie to the face of a guy who can barely read people! Imagine what would happen if someone else came sniffing around- oh wait, I’m sure W’Kabi has already caught on to whatever it is you’re keeping to yourself and he’s pissed off about it enough to directly oppose you. So do yourself a damn favor and _clean up the evidence_.” There were many areas where America failed, but their ability to spin stories that paint them as innocent of crimes they committed certainly isn’t one of them. Given the right circumstance it’s a useful talent too, even if America tended to use said talent in all the wrong ways.

“This is not America,” T’Chaka snaps.

“No, but maybe you should take American advice if you’re dealing with American politics. Not to mention people would believe whatever you told them on principal- people trust you here. So go get Klaw, kill him off to cover whatever it is your family member did to potentially screw this country over to begin with, make the border tribe happy enough that they’ll stop falling into extreme opinions on your politics _and_ foreigners in the country, and ruin the only other chance America has at getting to you. That’s three birds with one stone and I have no _idea_ why you’re not jumping at it,” he says. Tony just can’t wrap his head around it- this is the easiest solution to all of T’Chaka’s problems and he isn’t taking it out of faith in a family member he either had killed off or that T’Chaka killed himself? Senseless, _naïve_.

“You have no idea what I stand to lose,” T’Chaka tells him and Tony rolls his eyes.

“You stand to lose a fucking war, T’Chaka. Not to mention start one within your own country with the border tribe going the way it is. Go after Klaw to appease them, cut off America’s only other way in. Cover your secret in the mean time. Problem _solved_ ,” Tony tells him.

T’Chaka finally stands down a little, some of his anger slipping from his frame. “I don’t know how American politics always exists in a state of deceit. I have done one thing, one _awful_ thing wrong and it has weighed on me for years. I don’t understand how America can do this all the time without becoming exhausted,” he says, shaking his head. “And you are good at this,” he notes, giving Tony a suspicious onceover that makes Tony wonder if T’Chaka considered how good Tony is a politics before this. Probably not- he’s not a politician by trade but business and politics are basically one in America. Potentially an oversight due to a misunderstanding of American systems, Tony thinks, would account for the king’s confusion.

“You get used to it,” Tony tells him. “And the game is fun if you have a worthy opponent- America probably should have considered that before sending me specifically. People have long overlooked my political talent thanks to my being an omega and it made me good at business too. Its easy to win a game people think you’re to stupid to win. But in America a system like yours is unthinkable- we’d never have that much trust in our leaders.” Seems like Wakanda shouldn’t either given the information Tony just found but he doesn’t say that out loud.

“Please keep this to yourself,” T’Chaka says softly. “You don’t even know what you know.”

Tony shakes his head, earning a soft wince from T’Chaka. “I’m not in the business of keeping government secrets but the good news is that only T’Challa would believe me anyways. No one else would believe anything I said against you. But I’ll make you a deal- he doesn’t ask and I won’t tell, but if he does I’m not lying to my husband.” T’Challa doesn’t deserve that and Tony won’t to it anyways.

The king relaxes though, “you are dangerous,” he says and Tony snorts.

“You knew that from the beginning. Now maybe use it to your advantage, hmm?”

*

T’Challa shakes his head, “I have no idea what you said to my father but he seems to be simultaneously impressed and frightened with you at the moment,” he says. Yeah, so Tony knows.

“We kind of got into it and I won the argument. Guess it freaked him out,” he says honestly. It’s a half truth but if T’Challa asks for the details he’ll get them.

“He agreed to your plan with Klaw. He reached out to W’Kabi this morning and I’m genuinely curious as to how you managed to convince him when the whole country wanting him dead didn’t.” T’Challa grins and presses his nose to Tony’s cheek, a small but still significant form of scent marking that Tony allows, tilting his head a little to the side to give T’Challa access to his neck. He takes it immediately, nuzzling the underside of Tony’s jaw. “Just goes to prove you’re good for this country,” he murmurs.

It takes a good amount of effort not to snort at that because T’Challa has _no_ idea. Truthfully _he_ has no idea either- he’s still missing a lot of the story and without a motive Tony can’t possibly figure out why T’Chaka is so secretive about this Klaw incident. At this point he doesn’t even have a family member. Shit, if he’s _really_ honest he can’t believe he came across a real life Wakandan conspiracy that he didn’t intend to find and that no one else has put forth as a conspiracy at all.

Usually he isn’t _that_ good at catching secrets out but he’s used to working with seasoned liars, not a community of people that operate in a network of trust that’s wholly unfamiliar to him. It almost makes this entire thing unfair though Tony knows that T’Chaka will catch up immediately- he’s not a stupid man and Tony has shown his hand in the way he handled this situation. T’Chaka will not be stupid enough to play into Tony’s hands again.

“Yeah, not sure everyone would agree to that,” he says, smiling when T’Challa ignores him in favor of sniffing at his neck. Alphas- so easily distracted.

“Mmm,” T’Challa agrees, obviously not listening to what he’s agreeing to. “You smell divine,” he tells Tony.

This time he can’t hold his snort in, “Jesus alphas are useless when they smell something nice. Are you even paying attention?” he asks T’Challa. Instead of responding T’Challa presses his nose to Tony’s neck and takes a hearty sniff. That’s a no. Tony allows it though, smiling as T’Challa nudges his head further to the side because it actually does feel nice, he thinks, when he doesn’t have to worry about the action being some kind of fucked up way to mark territory. He’s heard it all before- that this is a healthy thing to do, and that omegas got pleasure from it, but this is the first time he’s ever allowed himself to feel safe enough to enjoy the feeling of being wanted. Maybe because this time the alpha sniffing him wants the whole, nut just the parts they want to use and discard later.


	14. Chapter 14

Tony wakes up to T’Challa shaking him gently and he makes an annoyed noise, rolling over and blinking a few times. “What do you want?” Tony mumbles at him, “it feels like ass o’clock in the morning.”

T’Challa smiles gently down at him, “it is early, but you’ve gone into heat. I thought you might want to go do whatever it is omegas do,” he says.

He makes an irritated noise and flips over, grabbing T’Challa’s pillow and shoving it over his head to block out the noise so he could go back to sleep. “Tony,” T’Challa says, shaking him again.

“I will eat you,” Tony mumbles at him.

“I… just… don’t you want to go?” he asks.

“I’d rather _die_ ,” Tony tells him. “So shut up so I can sleep.”

T’Challa remains quiet for all of point two blessed seconds before he’s back to irritating Tony. “Don’t look at me like that, in my culture it’s a big deal for an omega to spend their heat with you. Its something you have to earn,” he says softly.

“Yeah, it’s a big deal in my culture too now if you’ll kindly shut the fuck up so I can go back to sleep that would be _greatly_ appreciated,” Tony tells him, shoving T’Challa’s pillow back over his head.

It lasts less than a second. “Tony I haven’t earned this,” he says and Tony snatches his pillow back.

“That’s my choice and my choice is to _sleep_ not that you’re making that possible right now so shush.” He places the pillow back over his head and thankfully T’Challa leaves him after that.

When he wakes back up he feels hot and sticky and vaguely like he’s waded around in that pond behind his house that’s _kind_ of clean and he groans. “ _Now_ are you awake enough to do whatever omegas do in heat?” T’Challa asks, raising an eyebrow at him. He’s sitting beside Tony with a book in his lap looking somewhat amused but also tired.

“Have you been awake since you woke me up?” he asks, frowning.

“I had a strange urge to make sure you didn’t die in your sleep, which I can’t ensure will happen if I am also asleep. That and I wanted to be around when you woke up. You’re quite grumpy when you’re tired,” he says.

So Tony knows and it doesn’t happen often. He’s used to a lack of sleep but heats always make him more tired than usual. “Yeah well I’m still not going anywhere. I meant what I said and I don’t really know what you need to do in your culture to earn this- or even what that means- but in my culture not being a massive asshole will cut it so.” Its kind of an understatement but T’Challa has no real idea what omega oppression looks like, most no one in the country did outside of a history book. It’s a good thing, but it makes T’Challa’s horrified expression annoying because explaining what Tony means exactly involves more energy than he’s willing to expend.

“That is hardly earning anything, that’s just… what people should be,” T’Challa says.

Maybe so but that doesn’t mean it happens. “T’Challa stop arguing and just go with it okay? Its my heat, I’ll do what I want with it. Right now that’s shower,” he mumbles, rolling himself out of bed and dragging his ass to the bathroom. He can hear T’Challa moving around in their bedroom when he turns the water on, making it cooler than his skin to hopefully bring down his damn fever a little. He stays in the water for a long time, taking probably too much time in under the water but it feels nice to be there. When he finally does exit he walks back into his room to find T’Challa napping on their bed with new sheets and food sitting in the middle of the bed. Clearly he fell asleep before he could hand it off to Tony or eat it himself.

He moves the food aside and climbs into bed, settling against T’Challa before grabbing his phone and making a few calls. Its pretty easy to get who he had in mind to get on board with his plan but its his last call that yields some interesting information. “You owe me, Everett,” he reminds the man before he can actually say anything either way.

Everett sighs, “yeah, I get that but uh. We’ve already got Klaw,” he says. “And he’s saying some pretty insane things about Wakanda. Something about it being El Dorado?” he asks more than states.

Tony swears under his breath, “anyone believe him?” he asks, hoping he can head this off before it becomes a thing.

“No, not exactly. But there are uh… suspicions,” he says. “And now we’re even so-” he doesn’t get to finish that sentence because Tony cuts him off.

“We aren’t even _close_ to even, Everett. So here’s what you’re going to do,” Tony says, giving him the plan Tony has outlined so far.

*

Okoye looks irritated, “I dislike being left out of the loop,” she tells Tony and he sighs. At least, he thinks, he has the benefit of not being in the room as her. T’Challa has these nifty bead things that he eventually figured out could make some kind of hologram call to Okoye and probably others but she’s the one he needs to speak to so he’s happy he figured out her first.

“It wasn’t my intention, General, but uh. Things got complicated,” he tells her.

She squints suspiciously, “complicated how?” she asks.

Tony sighs, “well, America has already snatched Klaw- don’t worry I’ve got a guy on it. Actually I have a whole team on it but you know, point is he’s not going anywhere and these people all know better than to talk either because they don’t want to give the American government information or because they know I’ll ruin their lives. Or both if they’re Everett. But when I was making calls I happened to call the guy currently housing Klaw, who’s singing like a canary. Unfortunately for him he just flew into a mine. I’ve sent everything I have to you,” he tells her, hoping that might make her feel better at least a little. Its not like he intended to plan much of anything without her but then Klaw was already in America yammering away so he had to do _something_.

Okoye gives him one last irritated look before turning to the computer that’s behind her and pulling everything he’s sent her up. “You chose a Russian spy as one of the people we are supposed to trust here?” she asks, giving him a skeptical look.

“Sure Nat’s loyalties might be flimsy but if I called Pepper- her girlfriend- and told her what Natasha _really_ does at work their relationship would be done and she knows it. And that’s before what I could do to her job. And she sucks at gambling so she owes me ten grand. We’re actually pretty good friends but you know, if she didn’t decide to go along with it out of good will I could ruin her life,” he says. He wouldn’t, not the way she’d assume anyways, but she genuinely doesn’t know that. Try as she might she’s not very good at reading him- unusual for Natasha given her line of work.

“Retired military captain?” she asks.

“Disillusioned about America, kind of has a crush on me, owes me for finding his childhood best friend alive in some uh… shit circumstances and getting him out. He’s the social justice type- he wouldn’t give up your secrets just based on the knowledge of what America would do with it let alone the rest. Quite dependable, great ass,” Tony says. Okoye starts laughing, shaking her head as her laughter picks up and she doubles over.

He frowns, sure he hasn’t said anything funny but then T’Challa speaks. “I _really_ don’t like that one,” he says and Tony laughs too.

“Relax, I’m married,” he says casually, snickering when Okoye starts fanning her face.

“Alright, this one is less sketchy than the last. And T’Challa’s face when you made that comment about his ass should be on a billboard everywhere. That was great,” she says, shaking her head. “What about this one? Bast, his rap sheet is ten pages long!”

Tony rolls his eyes, “don’t exaggerate, its six pages long and it’d be a lot longer if I didn’t expunge half of it. I paid for his mother’s cancer treatment and trust me his petty theft skills will be useful. Barring that he’s a bit of a twit so he’ll work nicely as a distraction we can use to escape. Quill is shockingly hard to kill so I trust he’ll actually get out alive.”

T’Challa frowns, “how did you meet him?” he asks.

“The guy robs rich people- I’m a rich people but I felt bad for the guy. He just wanted to take care of his sick mom, can’t fault a guy for stealing everything he can get his hands on to do it. I mean I didn’t think he actually liked doing it at the time but we all make mistakes and his mom is actually a very nice woman so you know, I did my good deeds and his stupid ass still went to jail but not for robbing me in particular. Now he has a much smarter partner but I don’t have anything on Rocket so Quill will have to do.” That and he’d sooner hire Ivan Vanko than Rocket. He could at least predict the actions of one of them and its not Rocket.

“What about this one. Nebula,” Okoye says.

“Oh, we mostly bonded over shitty fathers and being treated like shit because we’re omegas. Also she’s a genius strategist and a master martial artist. In like several different martial arts. And she’s got a lot of pent up anger so I figured she could let loose on Klaw or whoever else gets in our way,” he says.

“Nothing on her?” Okoye asks and Tony shakes his head.

“No, we bonded over shitty fathers and being treated like shit because we’re omegas. That’s a solid bond in America.” And then there’s the fact that she lets him blow shit up and he lets her punch people. It pays off in the end really.

“Hope, Christine?” Okoye asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Hope is going to cause problems at Pym technologies as a distraction, and Christine is ready with a bunch of articles covering up Wakanda’s involvement. Hope is a childhood friend who kind of wants revenge on her shitty dad and I gave her a good excuse to do it and Christine and I have an agreement. One I’d rather not get into the details of,” he says mostly for T’Challa’s sake. But him and Okoye give him _looks_ and then they start pestering so he sighs. “Fine, she’s who I used to spend my heats with. Are you happy now T’Challa? Do you wish you didn’t know? I _know_ you wish you didn’t know,” he says. Her or Bruce usually but mostly Christine. She generally had more free time and less security watching her ass so that’s just how things worked out.

“I am completely fine with this knowledge,” T’Challa says, looking muck like he’s swallowed a lemon. Or an entire tree of lemons.

Okoye snorts, “sure you are,” she says to T’Challa. “What about this one- Everett?” she asks.

Tony grins, “he’s technically not an American citizenship but guess who made sure all his paperwork and digital links matched up?” he asks.

“Where is he from?” she asks. “And why is he in America specifically?”

“He’s from what’s left of England and he’s in America because America isn’t as shit as England. But his skillset made him useful to the military and truth be told he probably likes his job if he’s willing to risk being deported back to that shithole to be there. I happen to know I did a good job though and when you get a recommendation from Howard Stark’s son people don’t not hire you.” So Everett kind of owes him his whole life and Tony hadn’t initially intended to cash in on that but he happened to need a favor or twelve so he called Everett.

“What about this one?” T’Challa asks, holding up his wrist. The beads are projecting an image of Coulson and Tony sighs.

“Necessary bullshit. Agent and I hate each other but we also have an understanding and a long standing history of owing the other favors. This is my cash in but since its kind of a big thing I now owe him something too. Which will undoubtedly be annoying to deal with but I’ve got it. And he belongs to a section of military so secret even most of the government doesn’t know about it. Trust me, he’s _good_ ,” he says.

T’Challa frowns, “if half your government doesn’t know about him how come you do?” he asks.

Tony snorts, “because I can hack all their shit. Once I hacked the Pentagon when I was thirteen because my friends dared me to. Like the government can keep secrets from me. That and my father is a founding member of said section of the government. And my aunt, but mostly my hacking skills because neither told me about that little tidbit of information. I just found some weird paperwork and followed up.”

“I can’t believe you managed to blackmail this many people into doing what you wanted,” Okoye says. “You sure this marriage was a good idea?” she asks T’Challa, who looks absolutely offended on Tony’s behalf.

“Of course it is! He can’t help growing up in a corrupt country that breeds dishonesty and bad behavior! And we’re making use of it now,” he points out.

Okoye turns back to her computer, picking up her drink and nearly dropping it when she gets to the next bit of information. “You already have Klaw?” she asks, shocked.

Tony grins, straightening up in his seat. “Yeah, I’m _that_ good,” he says even though someone else did all the work in finding him. He just made sure that Everett is going to keep him. Well, Everett and the rest of his team but he knows that Nebula and Coulson in particular will make sure he goes nowhere.

T’Challa and Okoye, for their part, do look genuinely impressed with this.

*

Tony tries to escape T’Challa but it doesn’t work. “You stay here in bed,” he tells Tony.

He lets out a loud groan, “I’m _bored_ in here T’Challa,” he says. “I need stuff to do. And aren’t heats supposed to turn alphas into horny bastards?” Thus far T’Challa has show _zero_ interest in him in that particular way so he’s confused.

“You planned an entire plot in keeping a terrorist captive so that he can be brought back to Wakanda and presumably executed. We don’t even _do_ that here but I suppose Klaw will be an exception. And no, I have _no_ sexual feelings I just have a strange urge to make sure your eating and sleeping habits are normal and I want groom you,” he says, frowning. “This is _very_ confusing.”

Tony squints, “you want to _what_?” he asks because that’s new.

“I don’t even know what my mind is telling me to do, its annoying! Is this what heats are like?” he asks and Tony frowns, shaking his head.

“I can assure you I’ve never felt inclined to groom people under any circumstance ever. Closest I’ve come is taking care of kids and that’s mostly making sure they aren’t sticky because they touch _everything_.” Including things you didn’t know could be touched until a kid or twelve got their hands on it.

T’Challa wrinkles his nose. “Children are gross,” he says.

“I like kids,” Tony says. “Actually I like kids a lot.” They’re honest and they don’t usually have alternative agendas beyond wanting candy.

“Well, I am expected to produce an heir,” he says, not sounding impressed about that. “Never would have taken you for the kids type though.”

“I wasn’t in America. Like I’d bring a kid into that shit storm, but Wakanda is great. I mean its got its flaws obviously but the… everything is better. There’s clean water, mostly nice people if you’re from the country, basic omega rights that aren’t questioned, Shuri. What’s not to love?” He’d feel a lot less guilty raising a kid here than elsewhere. Wakanda’s issues might be particularly challenging to deal with but Tony is confident it won’t affect any kids he has as much as being in America’s environment alone would.

“Kids are not something I want to think about in the near future. And _you_ need to stay in bed, stop trying to escape,” T’Challa tells him.

Tony rolls his eyes, “I told you, I’m _bored_. Give me something to do here, I’m dying.”

“You have already had an exciting day! What more can you want after you managed to catch a terrorist?” he asks

“I mean technically I didn’t catch him, I just made sure he’d be held until we can go pick him up,” he says.

“ _You_ will not be going to pick up anyone. Not while you are in heat anyways as we both know that Okoye has roughly twenty four hours to get in and out with Klaw- any longer and people will start suspecting things and since your heat is longer than that you get to stay here,” T’Challa tells him, clearly proud of his reasoning abilities. He has no idea how stubborn Tony can be though and he’s going to find out soon.

“I need something to do,” he tells T’Challa, who gives him a _look_. “We could go back to that discussion of children I so kindly dropped,” he says and T’Challa sighs.

“I will find something for you to do, give me a half an hour,” he says. Tony grins, satisfied that he’s won this round.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My favorite part of this chapter is the assumption that Starbucks survives an environmental apocalypse lmao.

Tony curls into T’Challa’s side, pleased when T’Challa wraps an arm around him. Its more… intimate than he’s used to- usually if he didn’t go with suppressants this sort of thing is more of a business transaction than much else. He supposes that it also helps that he genuinely likes T’Challa and not in a ‘thanks for helping me out, buddy’ kind of way like with Bruce or Christine.

“Okoye wants me to come along on this… excursion,” T’Challa murmurs. They both know what he means- picking up Klaw. Lucky, Tony supposes, that America did half the work for them in catching and securing the guy.

“Great,” Tony says. “When do we leave?”

T’Challa frowns down at him, “‘we’ are not doing anything. I am leaving tomorrow,” he says.

Yeah, that’s what he thinks.

*

Nakia does a double take when she sees him and Tony grins, “yeah, didn’t think you’d see me, did you?” he asks, pleased with himself. He has no idea _how_ no one noticed him but he isn’t going to whine about it now. The fact that he managed to sneak in in between weapons being loaded into the plane is something he’s more grateful for than anything. It probably helps that W’Kabi is causing a small fuss about who got to do what, which is clearly irritating Okoye.

“You don’t smell like you’re in heat,” she says, sniffing the air around him.

He wrinkles his nose and waves her off. “I feel like its rude so sniff for heats no matter what country you’re in. Nose to yourself. And I uh, forgot about those suppressants I brought with me but they’re handy now. God knows I would have been busted smelling like some fucking Wakandan flower,” he mumbles. Nakia frowns, obviously confused and Tony shrugs. “That’s just what T’Challa said, I don’t know what your country’s flowers smell like. In America they kind of smell like cyanide.”

“That’s _awful_ ,” Nakia says, giving him a pitying look but Tony shrugs.

“Could be worse. Ever smelled our water before its filtered? Smells like _death_.” That would make sense if there were dead things in there, but there are mostly live things in there. Granted the fish is utterly uneatable now and they didn’t figure that out for a good ten years, but the good news was that the cancer rates are much smaller now that no one eats the fish.

“I would have thought America had better conditions than most of the countries I’ve been to,” she says softly.

Tony shrugs, he doesn’t know much about most countries conditions really. “It probably does, but compared to Wakanda it’s a fucking trash heap.” Next to Wakanda next to everything- actually no, it’s a safe bet that everyone sucks at least when comparing environmentalism.

“This is why we should share resources,” Nakia says, shaking her head. “People don’t deserve to live like that.”

“I take it you haven’t met any American politicians, then,” he says. They all suck, every single one though occasionally there was one or two that only sort of suck. But they’re rare and don’t usually last long.

“I’m sure even your politicians deserve better,” she says.

“Ehh, you haven’t met Brock Rumlow. Total prick, very possibly a nazi, has a weird amount of people who agree with his really terrifying policies that blatantly shit on the Constitution. He can eat a fish or two and I wouldn’t be that upset about it.” No one with a half a brain and critical thinking skills would be sad if Rumlow fell off a cliff but he’s certain the tainted environment has killed some brain cells in his home country or something.

“Eat a fish?” Nakia says, frowning.

“Yeah, they’re real fucked up now. Generally help cause cancer more than literally anything else. Sometimes they have like four eyes or something- I have a friend who sends me pictures of all the freaky fish he gets,” he says, snickering. Bruce didn’t find them as amusing but he has no sense of humor regarding his work. Tony thinks humor is necessary in every situation, including dealing with contaminated fish. Actually given how depressing contaminated food sources are comedy might be more helpful there than in Tony’s profession.

Naki looks horrified but he doesn’t think too hard about it. He has some phone calls to make that are more important than whatever is happening in America this week. His plans get disrupted quickly when T’Challa spots him though. “No! No, you go home,” he says, making a shooing motion at Tony.

He frowns, “did you just… shoo me? I’m on a plane, how am I supposed to just leave?” he asks.

“I am turning this thing around,” T’Challa says and Tony rolls his eyes, hurrying over to T’Challa before he can do something stupid.

“You are not turning an entire plane around because you don’t want me here, that’s ridiculous,” he says. T’Challa goes to turn around anyways and Tony jumps in front of him, “test your luck and I’ll go rat you out to W’Kabi. He’ll argue with you long enough that turning around would be basically impossible with our timeline,” he says.

T’Challa gives him an unimpressed look. “I dislike your ability to twist things to go your way,” he says.

Tony grins, “get in line with everyone else waiting for me to care. And don’t look so grumpy, you’re not the first person I’ve managed to work around. I do what I want,” he says. T’Challa still looks unimpressed but he shouldn’t, not really. Tony generally only pressed his luck with people he either had no respect for or people he’s confortable with. Clearly T’Challa is the latter.

“I would prefer if you did less of what you want,” T’Challa mumbles at him.

“Not gunna happen honey. I have things to do though so,” he says, waving a hand around and walking off while T’Challa gives him a confused look.

“How does he have things to do, he just got here,” T’Challa says to Nakia.

“You should expect more from him by now, T’Challa,” Nakia tells him and Tony laughs. Ain’t that the truth.

Tony takes off to another section of the plane though, earning a confused look from one of the Dora Milaje on the plane. Ayo, he thinks her name is. She works with Okoye a lot anyways. When he gets to a quieter section of the plane he digs that bracelet he got from Shuri out of his pocket, curious about it. He’d work out the details of how it works later, but for now he had gotten a crash course in bracelet from Shuri, who whole heartedly encouraged this whole plan because she resented being left out too. He’s half surprised she didn’t follow him on too though in her defense she’d be missed in the lab. Apparently _she_ gets a role in all this but Tony gets left in the dust. Well, T’Challa will learn not to do something so stupid later.

He examines the bracelet for a moment; skeptical that it could do what he needed it to mostly because it seems odd that tech this advanced would be able to make a simple audio phone call. He does what Shuri told him to anyways, surprised when he can hear ringing through the bracelet. Weird. Rhodey answers promptly as usual and Tony grins, “hey platypus, if you want to make up being a dickhead to me I have a task for you,” he says, cutting right to the point.

“You’re already doing something, Everett is acting weird,” Rhodey says.

Thankfully he’s probably the only one who would even notice that, but in the interest of being thorough Tony asks about it. “No one else has noticed anything, right?” he asks.

“No Tony, no one else could possibly tie Everett acting weird to you. I just happen to know you probably blackmailed him into doing something for you because he owes you. What is it you need me to do?” he asks. Well, if nothing else he’s dependable even if he makes stupid decisions sometimes.

“I need you to hack some stuff,” he says and Rhodey groans.

“I can’t keep hacking the damn air force every time you need me to! They’re going to catch on eventually,” he says.

Tony wrinkles his nose, “no they won’t. I have full confidence that you’re much smarter than anyone investigating the hacks,” he says.

Rhodey snorts, “of course I am, but that doesn’t make me infallible.”

“Well you can give me your passwords and I can do it myself,” he points out.

Rhodey sighs, “I can’t keep giving you my passwords either, Tony.” They remain silent for a few moment before Rhodey lets out another sigh, “fine I’ll hack the military,” he mumbles.

“Great. I just need a distraction. Give ‘em another cryptid of something, we had fun making up that swamp thing,” he says. Then several branches of both the government and the military spend a weird amount of time investigating what was obviously bullshit.

“I’m not making up another cryptid, I briefly got assigned to that case and I don’t like how good a job we did. Have you read the conspiracy theories lately? People keep seeing this thing we made up when we were drunk and in our twenties. Every time I hear about it I want to tell people how _stupid_ they are,” Rhodey says. Tony doesn’t need to see him to know he’s shaking his head.

“No, but you should hear Wakanda’s conspiracy theories. Fucking _nuts_. Anyways are you in America right now?” he asks.

“I swear to god if you want me to break into the Pentagon again I am not doing that. Last time I ended up having fake telepathic powers when I just knew the guys who were working that day and I know how lazy they are and took advantage of it. So I’m not breaking into the Pentagon. Again.” Tony snickers because that had been fun. He had had the blueprints in front of him and they mostly just fucked around but Tony had Rhodey steal a bunch of SHIELD files too. He’d been curious and Rhodey is too willing to go along with his plans. Pepper had been furious with them both but read the files along with them.

“I need you to break into the Pentagon,” he says just to be an ass and Rhodey lets out a third long suffering sigh.

“What do you need this time?” Rhodey asks and Tony laughs.

“I’m kidding, I need you to make sure Everett doesn’t lose a guy named Ulysses Klaw,” he says. “I’m assuming you know where he’s kept since you’ve noticed Everett being weird. Also tell Everett to stop being weird or he’ll fuck us both. Dude is a trained professional, tell him to get his shit together,” Tony tells him.

For a moment Rhodey is silent and Tony knows there’s a frown on his face, which means he isn’t going to like what happens next so he waits for the bad news. “Klaw? I just picked that guy up,” he says.

“That was _you_?” Tony asks even though he shouldn’t be surprised. If anyone is efficient enough to find and capture a wanted terrorist its Rhodey.

“Yeah. Why do you have an interest in him though?” he asks.

Tony sighs, “classified, honeybee. Just make sure the military is chasing its tail,” he says.

Rhodey remains silent for a moment for a moment. “Alright Tony. Just… don’t do something more stupid than usual. And for the record I really am sorry. Marrying you off was such a stupid, _absurd_ plan that I didn’t think anyone would actually do it. I thought we’d straight up invade Wakanda before sending you there as a fucking gift,” he says.

“Yeah well, they think vibranium is going to solve all their problems and lets be real, Howard probably wanted to get rid of me. What happened seems like a decent way to achieve both of those things. And I know you didn’t… mean for this all to happen. But you were still an ass for not saying anything and you’re an even bigger ass for assuming someone _else_ was going to have to deal with all this.” Granted it probably hasn’t occurred to Rhodey that half this plan was developed specifically on the notion that T’Challa would be like… attracted to his omega wiles or whatever. He wouldn’t need to consider that- all he needed to consider was Tony’s personality and that told him this had all been a bad plan. Which is was. But his personality hadn’t been what American operatives had been hoping would charm the prince. Personally he thinks that’s just as offensive to T’Challa as it is to him- as if T’Challa would spontaneously lose critical thinking skills because omega. But that’s how people think in America.

“Yeah, I uh… didn’t really think that through. Are you happy though? Because you seemed more than fine the last time I called,” he says.

Tony considers lying but he knows Rhodey will know. Even if he hadn’t known Tony for fifteen years he’s not stupid. He knows how to listen for a lie and he has a lot of experience doing it too. So Tony tells the truth, “Yeah actually. Turns out T’Challa isn’t a giant twat, he’s actually pretty sweet. And Wakanda is surprisingly nice given that you know. Its got a shit ton of fabric.” He knows Rhodey doesn’t buy that last bit but he’ll deal with that later. At the moment he has other things he needs to be doing.

*

Nakia and Okoye watch T’Challa chase after Tony trying to gather more information on Rhodey, his childhood best friend. “Who nicknames friends ‘honeybee’ or ‘platypus’?” he asks.

Tony squints at him, clearly taking offense. “I do,” he says. “Keep acting like an ass and your nickname will be ‘divorced’,” he adds, causing Nakia and Okoye to start laughing at the horror that appears on T’Challa’s face. “Jeeze, relax about it, I’m not actually going to divorce you. Just… leave the Rhodey thing alone. I’ve known him for fifteen years; I’ve had lots of time to consider marrying him before I married you. He’s not my type.”

“He is good entertainment,” Okoye tells Nakia.

She smiles, shaking her head. “He is. He’s good for T’Challa too- doesn’t let him get away with things.” Most would be too frightened of his status to stand up to him, its happened in the past, but Tony doesn’t seem daunted by it. Maybe its because he has a similar status to T’Challa’s in his home country, or maybe its because he has a disconnect with the way Wakanda receives their royalty, or maybe that’s just his personality but either way its good that he doesn’t allow T’Challa to walk all over him.

“Eh. I would have preferred you but he’s not the worst second choice in the world,” Okoye says.

Nakia shakes her head, “I’m not sure T’Challa and I ever could have worked out. But I’m hoping I can get Tony to talk him into a few things. He’s a useful weakness to exploit.”

Okoye snorts, shaking her head. “If you could get me a Starbucks I would be grateful. I want to see what the Americans are on about.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stayed up way too late to write this, but it's done!

Everett looks unimpressed, T’Challa notes, but Tony looks pretty damn pleased with himself. They do, in fact, have Klaw in custody and something tells T’Challa that this is all too easy. The man has evaded escape from Wakanda for thirty years and he’s somehow managed to fall right in their laps now? Something is going to go wrong and he can see that Okoye is also prepared for that to happen. He’s happy that he’s not the only one to think the simplicity is not going to last.

“You’ve got nothing on me now, Stark. Do _not_ expect another favor,” Everett tells him and Tony snorts.

“Oh yeah, I’ve got nothing on you but the fact that you helped another country get their hands on a wanted terrorist,” Tony points out. “You’re still going to be in my debt for life,” he says, pointing at the cameras in the room. Everett lets out a string of impressive swear words and glares at Tony.

“You’re a real prick, you know that?” he asks and Tony shrugs.

“Guilty as charged. Just saying it was stupid that you thought you’d escape being on my list of people to blackmail later. I mean you’re probably next to useless to me after this but still, I have a lot of dirt on you,” he says.

“I hope you know _that_ is what you chose to marry,” W’Kabi mumbles at him, face dark with suspicion.

T’Challa rolls his eyes, “obviously I know that is who I chose to marry. I would like to remind you that you’re currently benefitting from ‘that’ being who I married.” The entire country is benefitting from Tony now not that W’Kabi seems to see it that way. It annoys T’Challa greatly that that W’Kabi can benefit from Tony’s presence without actually admitting that Tony is helping him, especially when he acts like Tony’s presence is somehow a personal slight against him.

“Had your father agreed to do this years ago we wouldn’t have needed his help,” W’Kabi fires back but this time its Okoye who rolls her eyes. T’Challa raises an eyebrow at the General’s unusual response but wisely keeps his mouth shut.

“You think we could have gotten into an American government building completely undetected while various other people caused distractions to intentionally make people look away from what we’re currently doing? You’re a damn _fool_ if you think we could have pulled that off this quietly. We would have made a mess and exposed what and who we are to the world all because of your ridiculous personal vendetta!” she hisses, shaking her head angrily.

“He killed my parents!” W’Kabi snaps at her. Bad move, T’Challa thinks, but its W’Kabi’s funeral.

“So you think it’s a good idea to put Wakanda at risk chasing revenge? Don’t speak, I have no time for your excuses,” she tells him, holding up her hand when W’Kabi goes to speak again. T’Challa looks away, trying and failing not to smile at that. Okoye never has been the type to put up with nonsense. When he was young she had been recently appointed to her position- the youngest to achieve such a position too, and he had decided foolishly to press his limits. To say she put him in his place is something of an understatement, but he appreciates the experience. It let him know who Okoye is as a person and he really had deserved the punch he got for his efforts.

*

Klaw isn’t exactly what Tony expected but in his defense a large singing dude with a prosthetic arm probably isn’t what anyone expected. Or that absurd sounding accent. Or maybe it only sounds absurd because he’s singing- not that it matters either way because this did not seem the type of man to be able to pull off one of the most impressive crimes Wakanda has ever seen. He can see why help was needed and he’d look into T’Challa’s family tree later- he’s sure he’ll find what he’s looking for pretty much immediately.

“That isn’t even a good song,” Everett tells him, rolling his eyes. Tony is inclined to agree, but he keeps quiet. Off to the side of the room Rhodey looks suspicious; like he’s waiting for something to happen and in his defense they’re all waiting for this to get… difficult. In Tony’s experience things don’t usually go this well and Rhodey had said he had a hell of a time catching the guy because he had some fancy tech. What Rhodey doesn’t know is that the tech was probably Wakandan and no one is going to fill him in on that. The only reason he’s here at all is because Tony had him pick up a couple things from his lab and Rhodey hadn’t been impressed that Tony had been planning to intentionally not include him.

“So where are we going, boys?” he asks, grinning like he knows this is going to go his way. Tony and Everett exchange a look, wondering what he knows that they obviously don’t.

“Presumably to your death,” Tony says somewhat evasively. He wonders who’s holding W’Kabi back because, as much as Tony is quickly growing to like him less and less the more time he’s stuck with the guy, he does have sympathy for his position.

“A little birdy has told me that’s not going to happen,” Klaw says and Tony squints, trying to make sense of this moron with little success.

“Pretty sure your little birdy has bad information,” Rhodey tells him from across the room.

“Why don’t you let me out of these cuffs and we’ll see?” Klaw asks in a voice that’s almost… sweet? Everett looks back over at him again and Tony shrugs, unsure what they’re missing and why Klaw has waited so long if he’s got something up his sleeve.

Instead he sighs and moves out of the room, going to Okoye specifically. “Have at him I guess. But I think he’s got something on him that Everett obviously didn’t find,” he says.

“I searched him thoroughly,” Everett says in his own defense, obviously taking offense to Tony’s comment. Okoye nods, suspicion high on her features and she nods to Ayo. They step forward and when W’Kabi goes to step forward too Okoye immediately signals to him to stand back. Tony quickly steps away from her, sensing that someone is about to get their ass kicked and he’s not completely certain that its Klaw.

“You can’t take this from me,” he snaps, stepping forward, which proves to be a mistake because Okoye levels her spear at him. Tony’s curious about the weapon- its obviously not a normal spear, but he’s more than content to be far from the other end of that thing.

“I will do what I need to and I don’t need you to do it. Stand down or deal with the consequences of not doing what I’ve told you to,” she tells him in a harsh tone. Inexplicably W’Kabi turns to glare at Tony like _he’s_ the one who caused this and Tony makes a face, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t control your General, buddy,” Tony tells him, earning a sneer from W’Kabi. This does little more than make Tony roll his eyes.

“Please let me do this,” W’Kabi says to Okoye, apparently changing tactics but she shakes her head sharply.

“Your emotions are a liability. Maybe T’Challa will let you have his way with him in Wakanda,” she tells him, sounding doubtful of this. Tony doubts it too because T’Chaka probably has plans for Klaw and he doubts they include W’Kabi. For a moment Tony wonders if W’Kabi is going to actually test Okoye but he doesn’t- he stands down, giving Tony another vicious look as if he’s the source of the problem here and Okoye stands down too, turning back to her original task.

She and Ayo move to go collect Klaw and Tony steps closer to T’Challa, who draws him in almost unconsciously. Tony allows T’Challa to pull him in, settling his head on T’Challa’s shoulder. “You’ve done well,” T’Challa says softly, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

Tony smiles, “thank you,” he murmurs in Wakandan. He’s been practicing and Nakia is more of a help with the language than T’Challa if he’s honest but he’s made good progress learning the language anyways.

“Don’t _butcher_ our language,” W’Kabi snaps at him and T’Challa turns, snarling some kind of response in Wakandan but all Tony catches is a couple swear words and ‘ignorance’.

“I have had _enough_ of you,” T’Challa snaps at him, in English likely for Tony’s benefit. “If you have nothing useful to add keep your mouth shut.”

T’Challa’s words earn Tony another dirty look and, probably because Tony is a real asshole, he grins widely, giving W’Kabi a self satisfied look. It makes W’Kabi’s glare that much more poisonous but they don’t much get a chance to explore that further because that’s when the interrogation room blows up. T’Challa all but throws Tony behind him, which disorients him for a moment before he realizes that no, the room didn’t blow up. But there was a large blast followed by a few smaller ones and Tony sighs. Guess this is where things get complicated.

T’Challa and W’Kabi have already moves forward and Tony reaches for what looks like a watch on his wrist and pulls it forward, allowing the metal to cover his hand. Its not something he thought he’d actually need but he’s happy he had Rhodey bring it now. Another blast goes off and Tony keeps low, carefully picking his way past the now half wall that separated him from Klaw and the Dora Milaje. He can hear the fighting in the room but mostly focuses on ignoring it for now save for snickering at Everett’s loud swearing. He can’t hear Rhodey but he’s not sure if he had left the room before the blast or if he had still been in the back of the room. If he had still been behind Klaw then he’s probably fine, but if he hadn’t been, well. Tony supposes he’ll find out in a moment.

He carefully sidesteps around W’Kabi, who surprisingly lets him do this and T’Challa catches sight of him, trying to shoo him away. Tony gives him a _look_ , shocked that his husband thought he’d ever listen to the silent order. As _if_. He sticks his head in the doorway a little, earning a long string of warnings in Wakandan from T’Challa, but he ignores it in favor of Klaw’s fucking gun arm. What the _fuck_? Everett should have stolen the guy’s damn arm. Shit, he should have got Rocket- _he_ would have stolen his arm but _no_ , he only had Quill get them into the damn building. He sighs and considers the situation.

Rhodey is fine at the far end of the room looking a little stunned but he’s reaching for his gun so he’s obviously recovering. Okoye and Ayo are trying to keep out of Klaw’s arm gun’s range while simultaneously trying to corner him to capture him again and Everett has also drawn his weapon but he and Rhodey have both seemed to realize that trying to fire at anyone in such a confined space is a stupid idea. The chance of hitting the wrong person is more than high. Instead they both seem to be trying to find a different solution to their problem and Tony takes it upon himself to be the solution. He stands and T’Challa glares at him, “you get away from that doorway right-” his words are cut off when Tony is shoved forward, _hard_ and he nearly loses his balance as he trips directly towards Klaw. He catches himself just in time for Klaw to point his arm gun thing at him and he quickly covers the muzzle with his hand.

Klaw, perhaps stupidly, laughs before the gun fires and Tony winces a little as he feels the burn of the metal. That’s not supposed to happen- Tony has tested the glove and it didn’t do that with American guns, but the weapon is obviously Wakandan. It doesn’t surprise him that its superior to anything he’s tested the glove out on but it still held up more than enough to avoid him getting shot in the fucking face so he’s not complaining either. He looks down at the arm at the same time a very surprised Klaw does and Tony _sees_ the design. He knows how its put together, how it works. He’s always been good with technology and foreign technology isn’t an exception. But this arm in particular obviously has a Western flair because Tony has seen and made weapons like it.

Its bad news for Klaw because Tony pulls his gloved hand back, twisting the muzzle of the gun as he does and with his other hand he reaches in and snatches the first removable and vital part of the arm he sees before flitting back, certain that if that gun isn’t out of commission it will be if fired again. Klaw snarls, clearly noting the damage Tony has done to the weapon and there’s more bad new for him as the Dora Milaje close in. Rhodey though, for some _stupid_ reason tries to plow his way through Klaw, not paying enough attention to where he’s going because Klaw quickly grabs his wrist, gun dangling from his hand loosely, and pulls the weapon from it with a level of ease that shouldn’t have been possible. Rhodey is a damn trained professional so _what_?

Rhodey doesn’t even fucking _notice_ , he just keeps moving forward and Tony frowns, following his eye line to W’Kabi. His eyebrows draw together as T’Challa spins the man around and fucking _decks_ him. Tony winces as Everett yells and by the time he’s looked back Klaw has fired the gun he got from Rhodey, Okoye is looking wide eyed at Everett as he jumps in front of her, and Ayo has ignored them both to sidestep around Klaw. She lifts her spear and swings it, smacking Klaw pretty good in the head. He and Everett land on the ground at the same time.

“What the _fuck_?” Tony says as the room goes near silent.

Okoye leans down over a now bleeding Everett while Ayo stands guard over Klaw. “He just jumped in front of me,” she says, carefully laying her hand on Everett’s shoulder. His breathing is shallow and Tony notes in a sort of numb, shocked way that the bullet caught him between the shoulder blades. That’s just unfortunate.

T’Challa gives W’Kabi another disgusted look before he quickly makes his way over to Everett, swearing softly in his native language when he looks at his wound. He spares Tony a quick glance too before turning back to Everett. “We can’t just leave him to _die_ ,” Okoye says softly. He must agree because he slips her one of those beads off his bracelet before turning to Tony. Rhodey beats him to it though, glaring viciously at T’Challa over his shoulder as he does, but he quickly ignores him in favor of hugging Tony.

“Um,” Tony says. “Thanks, I guess.”

Rhodey pulls away for a moment and frowns, “Tony, you almost just _died_ ,” he says.

“Yeah but I didn’t,” he points out. “Everett got shot. Didn’t see that coming. Also what the hell, Rhodey? How the hell did he get your gun so easily?” Rhodey frowns again but T’Challa must put something together that Rhodey doesn’t because he explains things a little.

“Tony, W’Kabi all but _threw_ you at Klaw. He tried to kill you. The fact that you have… whatever that glove is and that it _worked_ is the only reason you’re alive. Rhodey was clearly upset-” he starts but Rhodey cuts him off.

“I can speak for myself, thanks,” Rhodey snaps at him, making Tony’s eyebrows go up in surprise. “No one throws my best friend at a terrorist and gets away with it,” he says darkly.

Oh, well that explains things. Granted Rhodey probably should have kept a better grip on his gun if he had murder on his mind but ok. “Wow,” Tony says, “what a total dickhead.”

*

T’Challa is annoyed, _very_ annoyed and he has no damn right to be but seeing Rhodey with Tony is making him go into a blind _rage_. Objectively he knows that he’s being irrational- the casual touching and easy conversation is because they’ve known each other for a very long time. He probably interacts with Nakia similarly but it annoys him nonetheless. Rhodey notices but Tony remains completely oblivious.

“What has got your nose out of joint?” Nakia asks, also picking up on his behavior apparently. She follows his eye line to Tony laughing at something Rhodey said and she rolls her eyes, flicking his nose. He waves her off, glaring at her for her efforts.

“What was that for?” he asks.

Nakia wrinkles her nose at him a little, “don’t be gross. So he has relationships with people that aren’t you, your jealousy is unwarranted and frankly quite stupid,” she says, blunt as ever. Part of the reason he loves her- she’s always been willing to be honest with him no matter the situation.

“I know that,” he mumbles more to himself than her. “But they get along so well.”

“They’ve been best friends for fifteen years, of course they get along well. What did you expect?” Nakia asks, rolling her eyes.

“Probably not a relationship that makes me kind of want to rip Rhodey’s stupid, overly touchy head off,” he says, fists clenching as Rhodey settles an arm around Tony’s shoulder. Tony leans into it too, like he does with T’Challa and he _swears_ he sees red. Nakia flicks his nose again and he shakes his head, glaring at her, “do you _mind_?” he asks.

“Not really,” she says. “Now stop with this ridiculous jealousy so we can get Everett to Shuri. And deal with Klaw and W’Kabi.” She shakes her head, particularly disgusted with the man given her stance on Wakanda’s place in the world and what she thinks the country should be doing. As far as opposites go she and W’Kabi are probably as far on each pole as two people could get. It probably helps that she and Tony get along quite well, something T’Challa is pleased with given that he’s going to put a recommendation in for her to be on the Council whenever he takes over as king. Nakia is stubborn and strong- she is unafraid to voice her opinions or fight for them and he thinks she will be an excellent choice for a Council member. He thinks the river tribe will agree as well- they are all quite proud of her and its easy to see why. If Tony had… well, acted like he currently is his plans for Nakia, should she accept them, would not go smoothly.

He sighs, “fine, please get Tony for me. I don’t trust myself not to do something stupid that I will regret later,” he tells her.

Nakia smiles, “and you finally learn a little self control. Thank Bast- imagine if you acted the way you did when you were a teen,” she says, shaking her head.

T’Challa frowns, “I feel that at my age _anyone_ who acts the way they did as a teen is not likely to learn much in life. But thank you,” he says, inclining his head a little. He turns to walk away but Tony calls out to him so he turns back around.

“We’re leaving now, right?” he asks, quickly jogging up to him. T’Challa resists the urge to wipe Rhodey’s scent off him because he _knows_ that his line of thinking is flat out absurd but his nose itches nonetheless.

“Yes,” he says simply, going for simple, not stupid answers that betray his irrational feelings. Rhodey walks up behind Tony, who mostly ignores him for the moment, but Rhodey then makes that impossible because he decides it’s a good idea to literally rub his hands all over Tony, who looks both confused and annoyed about this. He waves Rhodey off when he rubs his hands through his hair and frowns at him.

“Do you mind?” he asks.

Rhodey ignores him to glare at T’Challa, “get over yourself,” he snaps, walking away with that.

Tony’s eyebrows shoot up, “he really doesn’t like you, kitten,” he says and T’Challa makes a face.

“Do not ever call me ‘kitten’ again,” he says.

Tony rolls his eyes, “then don’t complain about Rhodey’s nicknames,” he tells him. “Or I’ll make up something worse.”

*

When they get Everett to Shuri she grins, “a broken white boy! What do I get to fix?” she asks excitedly, rubbing her hands together with glee. Tony raises an eyebrow but everyone else seems confident that she’ll be able to fix Everett somehow. Tony isn’t sure how but he’s remained completely stable through the entire trip back to Wakanda with no issues so clearly they all have something going on here.

“Thank you for that,” Okoye says softly to him and he frowns.

“For what?” he asks.

She sighs, “as much as I dislike Shuri’s work getting credited to someone else I appreciate the implications of your explanation,” she says and it clicks for him.

“Its not like I’d ever do something like that normally, but someone had to explain your weapons and short of telling everyone the truth I figured well, I’ve made impossible things with nothing but scraps and hopes before. Doesn’t seem extremely unrealistic to the people who know me that I’d do it again. No one who even considered those weapons for more than the few battle shocked moments they got could ever conclude that I made them but,” he shrugs, “they’ll think what’s easiest for them to believe.” Rhodey had inquired about the designs specifically, noting that they aren’t at all his usual style- that’s because _he_ didn’t make them- but he faked out by explaining that he made the weapons to fit Wakanda’s aesthetic.

Surprisingly he bought that lie and everyone else, which had mostly been Quill and Natasha with Nakia on guard duty, didn’t need more than his simple one liner about making new toys. Neither of them even saw the weapons in use so it’s not hard to write off. Rhodey would have been the challenge but he accepted the lie easily so luck happened to be on their side.

“What W’Kabi did was unforgivable,” Okoye adds softly. “I hope…” she sighs, “I hope you don’t believe all of Wakanda is not like that. Usually we are a rational people.” Her opinion on the latest events is abundantly clear.

Tony shrugs, “seems kind of hard to assume this entire country is shit when A- its better than mine even if its not always better to me specifically. And B- I’ve seen plenty of evidence that you’re not all a bunch of assholes. I never would have assumed this entire country is like W’Kabi. Statistically even the entire border tribe can’t be like W’Kabi,” he points out. Though he worries about those that are- just because not all of them are shitty people with a nasty case of xenophobia doesn’t mean the ones with extremist opinions aren’t still dangerous.

Okoye nods. “I did not agree with the way you were brought into this country- still don’t. But I think you are a find addition regardless,” she says. High praise from her, or that’s the impression Tony gets.

He smiles, “thank you,” he says in Wakandan and Okoye smiles brightly, saying the Wakandan equivalent to ‘you’re welcome’ back to him. He grins, pleased that he’s understood the phrase. Finally, he thinks, he’s actually picking the damn language up.


	17. Chapter 17

Its not that he doesn’t want the attention, Tony has always been fond of being the center of attention, but sometimes a guy wants a little time to himself and T’Challa has basically _glued_ himself to Tony’s side. In the last three days he thinks the only time he’s gotten to himself is bathroom time and even then the cat has taken to trying to get in the door too. Instead of being let in she sits at the door and cries until he comes back out.

Shuri frowns at him, “what are you doing?” she asks.

“Hiding from your damn brother. I love him dearly but the man needs to give me some damn _space_ ,” he says. Plus Everett is still lingering somewhere in the lab drooling over Shuri’s tech. He’s taken a particular liking to Wakandan methods of air travel, which it turns out is T’Challa’s area of expertise but still. He’s also pretty fond of Shuri even if Tony is positive Everett thinks she’s an actual practitioner of magic. In his defense Tony thinks that being able to heal gun shot wounds in less than a day is fucking impressive too but to Shuri its normal. Point is he figures he can use Everett as an excuse as to why he’s hiding.

“And why are you hiding from my brother?” Shuri asks, raising an eyebrow.

Tony sighs, “he’s basically sewn himself to my hip, I need some breathing room.”

“Under my lab table?” Shuri asks.

“Seemed like as good a place as any,” Tony says, shrugging.

“Well I need the table so get out from under it. And get Everett out of my lab- he’s annoying me. Its like Americans have never seen technology before,” she mumbles, shaking her head.

Tony crawls out from under the table and stands, “in our defense we’ve never seen technology like yours so. Also where _is_ Everett?” he asks. He hasn’t seen him since he woke up the day after being shot _really_ confused and sure that he’d been out for at least four months.

“Probably the weapons room downstairs,” Shuri says, “seems like Americans love their weapons too.”

He snorts, “I mean the right to own guns is _literally_ written into our Constitution so yeah, America loves their weapons,” he says. He turns to go hunt Everett down and just about runs into T’Challa doing so. He doesn’t _mean_ to let out a loud groan but he does, earning a hurt look from T’Challa for his efforts. Oops. Shuri winces and makes quickly makes a hasty retreat from the lab and Tony resents her for that, really. “Um…” Tony mumbles when T’Challa doesn’t say anything. “Sorry?” It comes out as more of a question than a statement.

“Are you… hiding from me?” he asks and Tony sighs. At least he can take some kind of pleasure in knowing that T’Challa isn’t a total moron.

“Yeah. I appreciate that you care, but damn, I need more time alone than the time it takes to shit,” he says. “What exactly prompted you to glue yourself to me anyways?” he asks, frowning.

T’Challa’s eyes just about bug out of his head at that. “Tony, I almost watched you _die_ ,” he says, obviously shocked that Tony hadn’t considered this before.

He shrugs, “I didn’t though.”

T’Challa sighs, “I love you, but your emotional competence ranges from impressive to the point of frightening to so absolutely stupid that Concrete probably holds more emotional intelligence than you. Anyways, I watched W’Kabi all but _throw_ you at a violent man looking to kill everyone in that room and you had no weapons, not training that I knew of, and no time to duck. Then you _stuck your hand over the muzzle of the gun_ like _that_ would help and I thought when he fired you would die. Forgive me for being frightened by that,” he says.

Tony sighs, “be freaked out all you want, just do it not attached to my hip. Sometimes a guy needs space. And I’m fine- I’m a lot harder to kill than I look.”

T’Challa reaches out, carefully tracing his thumb over Tony’s cheek. “I know you’re strong and resilient, but that doesn’t make you immortal. But I will give you some space- I didn’t even notice that I wasn’t.” Tony knows that, which is why he isn’t annoyed at T’Challa. Its not like he went out of his way to purposefully annoy the hell out of Tony or that he intentionally situated himself heavily in his life as some kind of way to mark his territory, its just that Klaw apparently scarred him for life. Well, him and the rest of the country.

*

Rhodey looks annoyed on the screen and Tony sighs, “what is it that you’ve got against T’Challa anyways?” he asks. Why Rhodey took a near immediate dislike to the man he has _no_ idea, especially when T’Challa is genuinely amazing. He sort of wishes he could go back in time to tell his past self not to be so hard on T’Challa when he first got here because his life here is pretty great now that Wakanda has mostly settled down about his being a foreigner. T’Challa says it helps that Tony is relatively open to the public now and, of course, there’s the whole thing with Klaw and W’Kabi.

As it turns out most of the fear around his foreign status took a turn for the weird when the country found out about W’Kabi’s murder attempt. Even a good portion of the border tribe decided to divorce themselves from beliefs like _that_. Tony doesn’t think the change of opinion is as strong as T’Challa thinks it is but Tony has a lot more experience in what discrimination looks like. Out of the two of them Tony is more equipped with experience to know that people not agreeing with extremists doesn’t mean they have no irrational fear or hatred at all, just that they’re benevolent enough to not actively want you dead. In its own way that’s more insidious- its easy to write off an extremist, but its more difficult to explain to generally good people that their opinions still aren’t right. But they’ll get to that later.

Rhodey frowns at him, “what, did you not notice how _jealous_ he was?” he asks.

Tony rolls his eyes, “I have functioning senses, so yes,” he says. But he mostly ignored it because it had been abundantly clear that whatever T’Challa’s problem was he didn’t seem intent on making it Tony’s problem. That and he watched Nakia call him on it- clearly that kind of thing is not acceptable in Wakanda and T’Challa knows it, so he actively made an effort to control it. As long as his jealousy doesn’t become Tony’s problem he doesn’t care. And it seems unlikely that it will- T’Challa hasn’t even brought Rhodey up so the signs point to Not An Asshole.

“And this isn’t a problem to you _because_?” Rhodey asks. “You’ve never had that much faith in alphas,” he points out.

“I do if they’re from Wakanda,” Tony says. The door to the room opens and T’Challa walks in, smiling at him briefly as the cat trots up to be pet. She’s been annoyed at Tony all day because he spent most of the day before in the lab showing Everett things while Shuri tried desperately to shoo them out. So now the cat is keeping her distance while also refusing to leave his immediate vicinity.

Rhodey squints at him, clearly not following his line of thinking. “Since when does country of origin have anything to do with jealousy being okay?” he asks.

Tony sighs, settling back against the pillows behind him. “Aside from the general respect omegas get here lets take a look at how you reacted versus T’Challa. You didn’t like his jealousy- okay- so to deal with it you decided it was a good plan to rub your scent all over me to purposefully antagonize him and mark me as _yours_. T’Challa, in contrast, did literally nothing. He didn’t react negatively at all aside from clearly being jealous. I can’t punish the guy for feeling things, and it was _you_ who escalated the situation, and _you_ who chose to mark me. If I’d choose anyone’s behavior to be worried about its yours. T’Challa made his feelings _his_ problem- you made your feelings your problem, his problem, _and_ my problem,” he points out.

Across the room T’Challa frowns while petting the cat, obviously not having considered that. Rhodey looks guilty on the screen to, clearly not having considered his own behavior more of a problem than T’Challa’s. “You’re right,” Rhodey says, “I didn’t think of it that way and I’m sorry.”

“Well, I guess it can be considered payback for that time I basically blamed you for your own poverty,” Tony says and Rhodey lets out a short laugh.

“Yeah, that was a bit of a dick move,” he says.

“We all have our moments where we’re a bunch of assholes. But really though, T’Challa is great and I actually like it here. I don’t really like constantly having to apply sun screen but you know, every place has its downsides,” he says. It hadn’t been something he considered much until he started spending more time outside and he ended up resembling a fucking lobster. Shuri and T’Challa both found it amusing while Tony did _not_ but he has since dealt efficiently with the battle of the sun.

Rhodey nods, “good then. I’m glad that you’re doing well because I seriously had my doubts. First of all this entire plan from the get go was stupid- sending _you_ of all people, or anyone else, but especially you off to basically be a spy was never going to work. I don’t even know _how_ that was supposed to work. All you’d do is resent everyone who sent you there, which you did, and also you suck at spying. Sorry,” Rhodey says, not sounding sorry at all.

“Actually he is quite efficient,” T’Challa says from across the room. “But that is mostly due to the cultural disconnect between Wakandan and American systems. Beyond that I am inclined to agree- I’m not certain what America’s plan was resting on here. Why would they have thought I’d give you information anyways?” T’Challa asks Tony in particular. Not Rhodey, which is telling considering which one held the military rank. Even with Rhodey’s clearly confused nature on the subject if this were America that question would have gone to Rhodey.

“It relied on me being an omega and you being an alpha. They assumed I’d seduce the information out of you,” Tony says and T’Challa frowns, not making that leap but realization dawns of Rhodey’s face.

“Oh my _god_ , they wanted you to be a concubine?” he asks and Tony rolls his eyes.

“It is _amazing_ how fucking dumb alphas are. No offense, honey,” he says to T’Challa. “What the hell else did you think they had planned? You said it yourself, I’m not exactly the spy type.” Aside from that obvious question Tony has no idea how Rhodey could have missed the implications before, but ignorance really is bliss.

“I think this stupidity is mostly just American alphas. In Wakanda we would never be so stupid as to think our antiquated beliefs on biology would win us information,” T’Challa points out.

Tony laughs, “good point,” he says and Rhodey frowns. “Yeah- these people don’t need frequent reminding that omegas aren’t useless homemakers,” he adds. “Finally someone who doesn’t think I’m naturally good with babies.” He is actually good with babies, but that’s because he likes kids, not because he’s biologically predisposed to being good with them. If that were the case than Pepper would be great with kids and Tony wouldn’t trust her with _Concrete_ let alone an actual kid. He once watched someone hand a baby to her and her first response was to set it on the edge of a table where Tony saved it before the poor kid fell off and suffered brain damage.

*

“This is amazing,” Everett says, looking out at the Wakandan sunset from a cliff Tony had found not long ago. Nakia brought him to it, preferring it as a look out point over the mountain.

“I know,” Tony says.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sky this clear,” Everett says.

“I know,” Tony repeats.

“They did all this with vibranium?” Everett asks and Tony nods.

“There’s this lake T’Challa showed me. Its so clear you can see the bottom two hundred feet down and its safe to swim in.” Everett looks as amazed as Tony must have and he shakes his head.

“This is amazing,” he repeats. “I can’t believe this has been under all our noses for… forever, essentially.”

Yeah, hard to believe considering how incredibly advanced the country is. You would think someone would notice, but Wakanda managed to keep everyone at bay with one hell of an impressive illusion around the border kept running by the border tribe. “Nakia- the woman that wasn’t one of the Dora Milaje,” he clarifies, “thinks Wakanda should share its resources.”

Everett shakes his head immediately. “People would be terrified of this,” he says.

Tony is inclined to agree. “But she makes a point about what Wakanda can do for the world. They could change everything we know about how the environment functions. There are a lot of people who could use that help,” Tony says.

“You can’t possibly be that naïve- people would literally kill for this,” Everett says, gesturing around.

“They already do, Everett. But they can’t kill each other over what they all already have. Look, I get the suspicion and I don’t really disagree with it, but Nakia kind of has a point. Seems selfish to keep such… life changing resources to yourself,” he says softly.

Everett snorts, “coming from a rich guy,” he mumbles.

Well, Tony earned that. “In my defense I had no idea what poverty was actually like until I got exposed to it. And I did a lot of work to you know, make up for being a selfish asshole after that. Probably never will make up for it but still- point is I’ve lived a good life and seen what happens when you keep all the good things for yourself. Is fear really worth people’s suffering?”

“Is the destruction of a country really worth your guilty conscience?” Everett asks.

Tony rolls his eyes, “your gun shot wound was healed in less than a day and Wakanda has weapons even the most advanced thinkers outside this country haven’t even conceived of. I’d know- I used to be one of them and I know all the rest personally. This country is stronger than literally everyone else; trying to win a war wouldn’t even be a competition. It’d be like a mouse trying to kill a cat. I think Wakanda’s fear is based on zero evidence.”

“Klaw made it in and managed to go uncaught thirty years before you found him,” Everett points out.

“Technically Rhodey found him. And I happen to have it on good authority that Klaw was more than a fluke- something like that could never happen again without someone in Wakanda allowing it to happen.” After a little snooping through the royal family tree it hadn’t been hard to pinpoint who either. There was literally only one option. T’Chaka is lucky that people trust him as much as they do because in America a conspiracy like this one would have been blown in two seconds flat. Point proven by how fast he figured everything out and he’s not exactly a top notch investigator.

Everett raises an eyebrow, “and what do you consider good authority?” he asks, obviously questioning Tony’s ability to trust a reliable source and he resents that, really. He’s a scientist- reliable sources are kind of what scientists _do_.

“The king. Need a better source than _that_?” Tony asks, lifting his eyebrows.

“The king just told you Klaw was an inside job?” Everett asks skeptically.

Tony shrugs, “technically I sort of manipulated him into telling me but yeah.”

“ _You_ manipulated the _king_?” Everett asks, giving Tony a skeptical look.

“He wasn’t used to American suspicion. Wakanda is a _lot_ more trusting and people don’t usually walk in with the assumption that he’s lying. Didn’t work out well for him in the end. Point is the only evidence Wakanda has of invasion is mostly fabricated and even if it wasn’t I’m not entirely convinced anyone could win any kind of war with Wakanda anyways. I’m not certain people would try if they knew what Wakanda has.” No point in starting a war you know you can’t win. America’s sniffing around is mostly made on the assumption that it would be easy to take Wakanda’s resources.

“Pretty sure you’re underestimating America’s desire for vibranium,” Everett says. “And their motivation to get it _especially_ after they find out what it can do.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “The only time they got their hands on some they made a giant Frisbee for a propaganda campaign. They wouldn’t know what to do with the metal if Shuri gave everyone in the country personalizes lessons on how to use it. Also I think you underestimate exactly how America gets its way with people. Our military either bullies people, finds a way to buy them, or totally ruins them- none of those options will work all that well here. Especially when the people they’re trying to get to don’t much speak to the outside world and certainly wouldn’t be willing to listen to the American agenda. Besides that even if they did they have me. I’m not spy material but I’m not an idiot either- I know how to read between the lines.”

“Well I think telling anyone about this is a bad idea,” Everett says.

“Even if it costs everyone _but_ the people here?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow.

Everett shakes his head, “we’re all more resilient than that. People talk about cockroaches surviving a nuclear blast but humans survive almost as much. Whatever we’re dealing with now its nothing we won’t survive.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm almost done this. I think I have 2 more chapters to go and then I'm finished. Also I've been waiting half this story to write that dog scene. Its a little out of tone from the rest of the chapter but I thought it was a little fun to break up the sad and depressing.

Nakia sighs, handing Tony the plate of fruits she brought with her. “I don’t understand the resilience to helping people,” she says.

Tony does- the concerns people brought up aren’t entirely baseless. It’s just that their worries may not apply to the current situation at hand. “I had a conversation with Everett the other day that gave me an idea,” he says. Nakia raises an eyebrow so he continues, “intellectually you can understand something, but if you don’t see it or experience it all you have is your imagination. And human imaginations kind of suck. If you really want to change T’Challa’s mind about Wakanda’s resources maybe we should just _show_ him what everywhere else looks like.”

“How do you think you’ll convince him to do _that_?” Nakia asks, frowning.

Tony grins, “ye of little faith. I’m American- I’ve spent all this time learning about Wakanda so I figure it seems like a fair request to ask T’Challa to learn about my country. The fact that I have an alternative agenda is somewhat irrelevant. Beyond that I think T’Challa will make the choice you’ve been trying to get him to make for years.” He’s a good man, and a smart one too. He’ll find a way to solve the problems that absolutely will arise from Wakanda extending help to other countries.

Nakia smiles, nodding, “I knew you were a good choice for this. That’s actually a good idea.” And not his only idea either. T’Chaka certainly wouldn’t like his backup plan but someone had to clue T’Challa in on the cousin Tony found when he tracked down N’Jobu’s record in America. Its not something he’s going to tell T’Challa without telling his father first, but its not something Tony is willing to keep to himself anymore. One dead man is bad enough, but a dead cousin too- that’s a little too much for him. That and he suspects that T’Chaka doesn’t know about Erik, or at least his death.

“Thank you. I know that there’s going to be problems, but I have enough faith in T’Challa to figure it out. And you’ve got those war dogs around the world to test the political climates around the reveal in other countries and monitor what’s going on so that’s a bonus at least,” he says.

His words startle Nakia and she frowns, “you know about the war dogs?” she asks, clearly surprised.

No, he hadn’t until he looked into N’Jobu’s records, but there have been hints of them before now. Tony just put the pieces together. “Yeah- I uh… was doing some research and found the information,” he says. It’s not really a lie anyways but Nakia clearly doesn’t think he’s telling the truth.

“You just stumbled upon information like that?” she asks, suspicious.

“No. But I wasn’t actively looking for it either. Look, I’d say more but its not really my place to out the King’s secrets,” he says.

“What secrets?”

He sighs, “I’m hoping he’ll tell you that.” If not he has a sneaking suspicion T’Challa will. He doesn’t like secrets and playing games- its part of why he dislikes diplomacy- and keeping a secret like this is not something he’d be willing to do. That and politically speaking it might do some good to give the border tribe a real explanation as to why T’Chaka never went after Klaw anyways. This outraged the entire country, but especially the border tribe, and T’Chaka skated by on the amount of faith and trust people put into his rule. In America that never would have gone as smoothly and the border tribe probably would have turned into a militia. It still amazes Tony how things run here.

*

T’Chaka looks pleased to see Tony for about ten seconds. “N’Jobu,” he says and the king’s face goes sour.

“You can’t leave well enough alone, can you? Nosey American,” he mumbles the last bit under his breath in Wakandan. Too bad for him that Tony understood that.

“You should have guessed that any American you brought here would be nosey, but especially one that’s straight up known for playing in all kinds of sandboxes I have no right to play in. I hacked the Pentagon for fun in my teens, T’Chaka. You probably should have considered that. And N’Jobu’s kid. You just _left_ him in America?” So much for Wakandan interconnectedness, the kid was just left to die. His mom had been in jail and died there and T’Chaka killed his father. He had no one else left.

“I had no choice,” T’Chaka says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Bull _shit_ , T’Chaka. You just left the kid to die for your own mistakes, how cruel is that? Imagine if N’Jobu did that to T’Challa. How would you feel then? Would you think it was just as necessary to leave your own kid to die?” he asks. He hadn’t intended to sound so pissed off but he’s always had a soft spot for kids and thanks to Howard he has a special kind of hatred of people who endanger them. On the whole T’Chaka is a decent man and a good king, but in this particular instance he was unspeakably cruel and Tony just doesn’t know how those two people could exist in the same body.

“What are you talking about?” someone else asks from the doorway and Tony turns to find T’Challa and Shuri both standing there. He sighs and looks back to T’Chaka.

“He asked,” Tony warns. “Either you answer or I do. You might want to come up with a better explanation for what happened to their cousin too because your current excuse fucking sucks,” he snaps.

T’Challa looks between Tony and his father, frowning but its Shuri who speaks first. “We don’t have a cousin,” she says slowly, obviously confused.

Tony looks back to T’Chaka, who looks pained but eventually nods to Tony. “I’d say sorry but I’m not. Your actions resulted in the death of a child- N’Jobu might have made his mistakes but at least he didn’t do that.” Tony shakes his head and walks away, leaving T’Challa and Shuri with their father.

*

When T’Challa comes to find Tony he’s pissed off and hurt and Tony doesn’t really blame him. “I’m sorry,” Tony says genuinely. It’s not the kind of thing he intended to happen, but when he digs around in places most don’t he finds things people don’t know about.

“He _killed_ our uncle because he wanted to help poor black communities in America,” T’Challa says, disgust coloring his tone. Tony winces, knowing how much T’Challa cares about his father- that must be painful to admit out loud.

“Yeah. The community he picked is pretty awful too, not the worst America has to offer, but it’s not far off.” In an interesting twist of events Tony has actually tested things in the general area N’Jobu used to operate in because of how bad the environment is there. To test to see if things were working it made sense to test them in areas that needed the work. Everyone else had called him an idiot for it but Tony didn’t see the point of testing environment saving devices in areas where the difference would take weeks to notice instead of days and, on one occasion, hours. Its like those shaving commercials that show some dude shaving a smooth face. If they really wanted to impress Tony they’d shave a damn bear. Except he dealt in tech, not razors.

T’Challa sits carefully next to Tony. “What exactly _does_ your environment look like? My uncle must have seen something awful if he thought betraying Wakanda was the only option to fix it,” he says softly.

Lucky, or maybe unlucky, for him Tony has pictures. Most are from his own neighborhood but the fact that things are still pretty awful relative to Wakanda. He hands over the tablet he’s been working to fix, or more accurately make more like Shuri’s superior designs, for T’Challa to scroll through the pictures. Most of them have Tony taking up most of the frame but the look of the sky alone is an indication of the environment around it. There are other pictures of him on boats though and the water is… well, disgusting to say the least. When T’Challa gets to the first one of the water, a picture of Pepper Tony had taken in her neighborhood, which has a far nastier environment than his own, he gasps.

“Is this even safe to be around?” he asks, zooming in on the water in the background.

Tony shrugs, “technically yeah.”

T’Challa frowns, “‘technically’?” he asks.

“I mean if you live too close its risky, but property in the area is cheap because of the risk. Obviously people with less money live there because they can’t really afford to move elsewhere. This was taken just before I started testing some water purifying designs I was working on- they improved things somewhat but they’re all prototypes and prototypes mean problems. I’d bet our marriage that no one has gone back to see what they’re doing and the chances of anyone but maybe Pepper knowing how to fix them or design something better is like zero.” Pepper might have the knowledge on how to fix his designs, but not the skill, and he doubts many people in the area would have the skill and even if they did they wouldn’t have the tools. Vicious cycle, that.

“And this is what my uncle saw?” T’Challa asks.

Tony snorts, “no what he saw was that on crack. Squalor is a polite way of describing the area he briefly lived in and I can see why he drew his conclusions even if his plan was stupid at best. But I don’t really have pictures of that. I grew up rich and in one of the cleanest areas America has- I got lucky. Here,” Tony says, pulling the tablet from T’Challa’s grasp and finding the right pictures. The fact that he had any is sheer luck but when he finds them he hands them over. Its clear that T’Challa is shocked but Tony is only half sure why. Nakia has been telling him for years about conditions outside of Wakanda so he must have some idea of what the rest of the world is like. “Nakia told you about all this,” Tony eventually points out.

“Nakia told me things were bad, not that these areas are biohazards,” he says.

“You do realize that’s what she meant, right?” Its weird being on the other end of this discussion. Usually when it came to environmental problems Tony is the one with less knowledge on what things really look like thanks to his being from a rich and generally clean area. Granted after living in Wakanda for the last few months his definition of ‘clean and safe’ is now at a much higher standard. N’Jobu must have been horrified when he got to America let alone once he got to the particular area he was in after spending his whole life in Wakanda.

T’Challa sets the tablet aside. “And what would my father have done if I listened to her? If I decided that Wakanda _should_ extend its resources? Kill us too?” he asks softly but Tony already knew the answer to that.

“He might consider Nakia more expendable but he’d never hurt you. He’d just try and talk you out of it,” Tony says. T’Chaka has his issues certainly, but Tony has serious doubts he’d ever seriously harm his son. Its just other people’s children he deemed expendable, apparently.

“I don’t know if I believe that,” T’Challa murmurs. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.” Tony wraps an arm around T’Challa, pressing his face into T’Challa’s neck in an instinctive act of comfort and scent marking that he doesn’t think much of until he’s already done it. Strange, he thinks, because he’s never really done something like that with anyone else. Probably because it requires a certain level of trust that he’s never had in a romantic partner aside from T’Challa. Funny how that worked out.

*

So far T’Challa has not been particularly impressed by America, which Tony finds more amusing than anything. He’s used to the country and all its environmental disasters and it’s almost nice to be back home. Its nostalgia speaking, not reality, but Tony appreciates it nonetheless. T’Challa, however, has decided that even Concrete shouldn’t be allowed to walk on the ground he considered contaminated. Concrete had not been happy with her booties and since she kept trying to shake them off and almost falling over he decided to just leave her in the hotel. Tony is sure the hotel staff is _right_ pleased with the yowling animal.

“So that is a dog?” T’Challa asks, pointing at a Chihuahua. Tony nods and T’Challa points at a particularly large Newfoundland dog, “and _that_ is a dog?” he asks and Tony nods again. T’Challa gives him a somewhat annoyed look, “I am not _stupid_ Tony, they are not both dogs. One looks like a large rat and the other vaguely resembles a bear, they cannot be the same.”

Tony lets out a loud snort at that. “What, does Wakanda not have dogs?” he asks. He hasn’t seen any but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. He’s not seen flamingos but he knows they’re in the area.

“Yes but they look more like that dog over there, except with shorter hair and more red. Like those wolves you read about some time ago. They don’t like people and they don’t come in variations as wide as large rat to small bear,” he says.

“Well in America we have a lot of breeds,” he explains.

T’Challa looks around, “that is a dog?” he asks, pointing to a German Shepard and Tony nods. T’Challa points to a pug, “also a dog?” he asks and Tony sighs.

“We’re in a dog park, they’re all dogs,” Tony tells him.

T’Challa looks skeptically over his shoulder, “you mean to tell me that _that_ is a dog?” he asks and Tony turns to see what he’s pointing at.

He sighs, “no, that’s an iguana and I don’t know why its here.”

“If you think that’s weird I saw a man wearing a snake as a scarf,” Okoye says, appearing beside them holding a Starbucks cup. T’Challa frowns at it and she gives him a look, “what? I wanted to see why the Americans liked the brand so much. This is much better than our version of coffee,” she adds. Tony’s surprised considering her water tastes infinitely better but he’s not going to mention that.

“Americans have a weird obsession with demented animals that they have widely labeled ‘dogs’ and reptiles,” T’Challa says and Tony shakes his head.

“Americans definitely don’t have a thing for reptiles,” he says.

“A man wore a snake as a scarf,” Okoye says, clearly confused. Apparently keeping snakes is not something Wakandans typically do. Technically Americans don’t either but it must be more unusual for Wakandans if Okoye’s and T’Challa’s confusion is anything to go by.

“Yeah, some people are weird, that’s not reflective of the whole country,” Tony says.

“Okoye,” T’Challa says, “that is a dog, and that over there is also a dog.”

Okoye gives Tony a _confused_ look and he sighs. “The small one is a Pomeranian and the large one is a husky,” he explains.

“They’re the same species?” she asks. “What kind of genetic mutations did Americans give them?” she asks and Tony sighs.

“Yeah okay selective breeding is still a thing but there’s always been a wide range in dog species. Do you seriously not have dogs?” he asks.

“Not ones that are so different that one could be mistaken for a mop head while the other could be mistaken for a wolf,” Okoye says. “Do you have this many variations of cats?” she asks.

He sighs, “technically there’s some variation but they’re all called cats regardless of breed,” he says. T’Challa and Okoye look offended, probably because Wakanda painstakingly divides cat breeds the way Americans do with dogs.

“This country is terrible,” Okoye says. “But they do know how to make good coffee and strange dogs.”

“I can’t believe you are eating or drinking anything from this country- have you seen the water? I would not even let Concrete drink it,” T’Challa says and Okoye gives her cup a newly shocked look before trying to hand it off to Tony.

“Uh, no. I don’t like Frappuccinos, I have taste and class, thanks,” he says.

“Are you implying I _don’t_?” Okoye asks and Tony sighs.

“You just didn’t know any better. Point is I don’t drink fake caffeine,” he says, wrinkling his nose at the sugary lie in that cup.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I had 2 more chapters but then I was like you know what, this feels natural I'm kind of done with this idea so here we are. Technically I have more for the universe that I hadn't written in but I have a few amusing deleted scenes at the end.

T’Challa looks around the area and Tony can’t fault him for the disgust there. “People are allowed to live like this?” he asks Tony. In Wakanda that would never happen- the sharp inequality that exists in America. But Wakanda’s system is built on the premise that all work contributes to the system and that if you remove something from that system it begins to fail. America’s system has a harsh hierarchy that deems most jobs expendable, low skilled, and therefore useless or lacking a meaningful contribution no matter how untrue. As a result yes, anyone who works the more expendable jobs, or are more expendable people, end up in areas like the one they’re in.

“Keeping people living like this is borderline encouraged in this country. Here being a failure is treated like a personal failing- when people talk inequality its often brushed off and you’re told to work harder. What they don’t know is that people already bust their asses. I work ten times as hard as Justin Hammer and get half the credit despite being about a million times more competent. America thinks it rewards the talented, but it rewards the rich and the privileged. Thankfully I _do_ happen to mostly fall into that category. But people here don’t in any capacity.” He could guarantee that most of the people here work far harder than most of the people Tony knows but they don’t get any of the credit for it. From his research of the area to say people worked to survive is an understatement- its more like they worked to be in debt because they simply can’t afford anything.

“America, land of the free,” T’Challa says in a harsh, mocking tone. “I can’t believe your people would do this to themselves. How could they allow this?”

Tony sighs, “people who are working to survive don’t have time to complain about never getting ahead- they’re consistently falling behind. That’s how powerful people in this country like it. I’m sure you realize now why Wakanda’s system is so… foreign to me.”

T’Challa gives him a cool, appraising look. “Were you like that?” he asks. ‘ _Were_ ’- past tense. T’Challa has too much faith in him.

He’d like to say no but its not true, not really. “For too long, yeah I was. Mostly out of ignorance but that doesn’t excuse not looking beyond my rose tinted glasses to see what an absolute fuckhead I was. I’ve spent a long time trying to do better, but that’s not the kind of thing you can really erase from your life,” he says honestly.

“You admit that freely,” T’Challa says and Tony shrugs.

“Why wouldn’t I? I don’t like when people try and brush treating me like shit because I’m an omega under the rug, doesn’t make sense to do that with my own shitty behavior,” he reasons. He hadn’t always done that but Rhodey made some persuasive arguments and Tony had rightly felt like a total dickhead. So he tries not to do that now.

T’Challa reaches out and laces his fingers through Tony’s, “I think you give yourself less credit than you deserve. You grew up in a culture that encouraged you to be a bad person and you’re not. That’s no small feat,” T’Challa says.

“When you grow up in a culture that encourages discrimination growing up to continue promoting that culture means you lack empathy, critical thinking skills, and basic common sense. Growing up to realize your culture is wrong doesn’t make you a good person- being a good person means doing something about it.” Which he hasn’t mostly. Most of the designs he has worked on were things that interested him intellectually- people had been an afterthought. That’s now always how it went, eventually he took an interest in people too but that took time.

“You _are_ doing something about it Tony, you’ve brought me here. You certainly have no patience for people discriminating against you or anyone else, and you’ve created several designs to help the environment here. Is that not enough?” he asks.

No, its not even close to enough but making up for what he’s done isn’t something that’s possible. He doubts T’Challa would understand.

*

Tony and Nakia watch T’Challa talk to the locals, mostly trying to gather information about his cousin. Its sad to watch but necessary, Tony thinks, to his ability to move on from this. He doubts T’Challa’s anger at his father will go away any time soon though. “I still… I can’t believe T’Chaka would do something like that,” Nakia whispers softly.

He had come clean to the country after T’Challa found out because T’Challa hadn’t been able to sleep and absolutely refused to keep his father’s secret for him. That was not, T’Challa said, the kind of king he expected his father to be and he certainly hadn’t been alright with allowing such a tragic and horrific event just fall away to the dust of history. He had been offended at the lack of care T’Chaka showed his brother and more at the lack of care Erik got.

“I’m not so surprised, but that’s probably because I expect my leaders to be terrible people. In America this kind of thing is par for the course,” he says.

Nakia shakes her head, “in Wakanda that’s not what we do, its not our way. What’s worse is that thirty years ago we all would have understood however awful that was. The country was far more opposed to the outside world then- they would have seen T’Chaka’s actions as a necessary evil and he chose to hide it anyways. I don’t understand that,” she says.

Tony does. “He felt guilty Nakia, he didn’t want to do it. It makes a kind of twisted sense in context.” Why tell the country about something he found just as despicable and horrible as T’Challa and Nakia found it now? Granted that had been guilt over his brother but not N’Jobu’s son. Erik didn’t get the privilege of the king’s thoughts and that’s what Tony finds the most cruel. He understands T’Chaka and his actions, and especially N’Jobu and his, but to leave a child to die simply because Erik had been perceived as part of a mistake T’Chaka and N’Jobu made- that’s horrible. Erik was literally left to die over choices he had no say in, over nothing that he had ever done. From what he’s gathered Erik grew up angry and resentful and Tony can’t say he blames him for that. Growing up a prince in the land of the paupers just because his father thought to help and his uncle wanted to continue hiding while his mother died in prison. What a shit life to be handed.

“His actions make no sense to me,” Nakia says.

“That’s because you’d never do anything like that,” Tony points out.

“And you would?” Nakia counters, raising an eyebrow. She clearly doesn’t think he would.

“We all make questionable decisions based on whether or not we think we’re right. I have no doubt I’d make horrible mistakes in the name of doing what’s right.” Its certainly not something he’s proud to admit, but he knows himself well and if he got handed a bad solution with a good pitch he knows he’d be stupid enough to fall for it. Rhodey once told him that for all his suspicion of people and the world he actually had a lot of faith in them and its not wrong. Its something Rhodey shares- its why he’s in the military despite the evidence that the military isn’t exactly a great institution. Its why Tony held so much faith in Howard for so long before he eventually realized that Howard is a bad man and he rather likes being that way.

Nakia considers him for a long moment. “I think you lack faith in yourself and its not entirely deserved. You’re a good man, Tony. Without you none of this would have been brought to light- believe it or not but Wakanda is thankful for that. You’ve done a lot to change the opinions of people about foreigners in the country with how beneficial you’ve been,” she says.

Tony rolls his eyes, “foreigners shouldn’t need to be useful,” he says. “But I’m happy to learn that people have figured out that they’re assholes. Besides that you’re wrong- secrets never stay secret. T’Chaka’s actions would have come to light with or without me.” He suspects T’Challa would have figured it out eventually. It might have taken longer, but he’s a smart, capable man. He’d put the pieces together. Hell, if Shuri had known what to look for it would have taken her ten minutes to figure out everything he did. It took him a half hour to figure it out but Shuri’s systems are still a little strange to him so the learning curve slowed him down. The good news was that he finally figured out how to transfer JARVIS and the AI has been irritating the hell out of Shuri since he set JARVIS up in their now shared lab space.

“I think T’Chaka is going to abdicate the throne to T’Challa,” Nakia says. “People now hold more trust in him and T’Chaka isn’t stupid. T’Challa is the future of Wakanda. But you might want to prep him for that because as smart as he is sometimes the smartest political choices go over his head if he’s on the receiving end of them,” she says.

Tony laughs, “yeah- case and point, our marriage. Thankfully that worked out but yeah, I’ll talk to him about it.”

In the meantime Tony and Nakia can both see how invested T’Challa now is in international environmentalism. Its for the best Tony thinks, whatever problems will arise from it. Tony is sure T’Challa will manage just fine at figuring things out.

He and Nakia sit in silence for some time before she speaks again, “you know I’ve never seen him so enamored with someone before,” she tells him.

“I don’t know, you’re a pretty good catch. To be honest I’m kind of a downgrade,” he says and Nakia laughs.

“Maybe a little,” she jokes and he laughs too. “But he does love you and as his best friend it is my duty to tell you that if you break his heart I know hundreds of ways to kill a man. I won’t make your death pleasant,” she tells him.

Tony lets out a loud snort, “wow, you and Rhodey both. He made his obligatory threat on T’Challa’s life last night and almost ended up murdered by Okoye. But I’ll tell you what T’Challa told Rhodey. There really isn’t much to worry about. Even if we did grow apart, and I doubt that’ll happen, then we’d be mature enough to not be dicks about it.”

Nakia winces, “oh, I would not want to be murdered by Okoye. She’s quite good,” she says.

Yeah, Tony has no doubt about that. “You should meet Rhodey, you’d get along,” Tony says. “You know, best friends of the grooms bonding and all that. In America usually that happens at the wedding but you know, I got married in a country that has exactly one foreign resident.” Rhodey would probably like Nakia too; this would be a good set up if Tony can pull it off. He’ll get T’Challa involved later.

*

T’Challa paces the room and Tony watches, petting the cat as he works things out in his head. “I should organize some kind of meeting with the UN- that would be useful in obtaining which countries have the worst environments so I can organize helping the worst areas first,” T’Challa says and Tony sends Everett an email to figure it out. Poor guy, he thought he was going to escape Tony and accidentally fell right back into his trap. He sends Coulson an email to be sure Everett manages his goal.

“From there working outwards makes the most sense. Education will be important too- there is no point in cleaning the environment with technologies no one knows how to maintain or fix. Shuri can handle that,” he says and Tony sends another email to Shuri explaining T’Challa’s intentions.

“You might want to give people tools too- its not like most areas have them,” Tony points out as he makes a note of it in his email to Shuri.

“Yes, that’s a good point. We also need to maintain some kind of balance between helpful, but not weak or naïve,” he says and Tony grins.

“Just bring Okoye with you everywhere. Only someone with a death wish would ever cross her,” he says.

T’Challa nods, “alright. That might make some sense, having a guard around. It would send the message that we have a military without threatening to use it plus if anything happens Okoye is the best there is,” he says, nodding mostly to himself. He rattles off a few other things he thinks will be necessary or problems he anticipates like translators, trade agreements, and Tony points out cultural differences will absolutely influence how they’re perceived. When he finally runs out of his list though he sighs, “ugh- well I guess I have to… figure out how to put all this in motion,” he says, looking exhausted already.

Tony smiles, “you have a meeting with the UN on Tuesday at ten a.m, Nakia is already in contact with war dogs to try and make a preliminary categorization of which areas need the most help in which countries, Shuri is running the numbers Nakia is sending her. I’ve put out feelers for translators and people willing to give Wakandan educators a crash course in cultural cues, Okoye is obviously willing to guard you at all times, and we have a dinner reservation at eight,” he says.

For a moment T’Challa just stares at him. “I have no idea what I’d do without you,” he says honestly and Tony snorts.

“Rely on Nakia to do everything I just did,” he says and T’Challa shakes his head, smiling.

“Probably,” he admits.

“Oh, and your mom is going to give you a crash course lesson on how to handle international diplomacy because apparently she has a wealth of knowledge on that,” Tony adds. How that’s possible he doesn’t know but he figures if the queen has useful knowledge it makes sense to pass it along. Tony has his own set of knowledge to pass along too and he knows he’s probably going to end up the cultural translator for America.

T’Challa frowns, obviously thinking something similar to what Tony had been thinking but he doesn’t say anything. “Alright then,” he says, shrugging.

“Also your father is going to abdicate the throne to you,” Tony says and T’Challa’s eyes bug out of his head.

“He’s going to _what_?” he asks. “No! I am not ready for that!” he says in a panicky tone but Tony sighs.

“T’Challa, you’re more ready for it than your father is and he’s been king for like… I don’t know how long because looking that up didn’t occur to me. Point is the first thing you did when you found out about your uncle was right that wrong and now you’re basically starting an international environmental cleanup on your own. That isn’t exactly a small undertaking and you’re not shying away from the responsibility of it at all. You’ll be a great king, T’Challa,” Tony tells him honestly.

T’Challa walks over to him and kisses his forehead. “Only because I have such supportive people around me. You, Nakia, Shuri, Okoye- without all of you I would not be able to do all this,” he says softly.

Tony smiles, “yes you would. We just make it a little easier for you.”

*

“I never want to see anything like that again,” Tony says, looking particularly upset. T’Challa would smile but his face hurts. M’Baku knows how to throw a punch even if he hadn’t won the fight. Interestingly he had chosen to continue to object to vibranium use rather than the country opening its borders like the other now outlying faction of Wakanda is. They have lost a good part of the border tribe, but almost as many have stuck around and members of the merchant tribe and the river tribe have stepped in to help the remaining members of the border tribe keep things running the way they should be. He’s been grateful for the support the rest of the country has given him, but Tony says that’s because of the speech he gave about Erik. T’Challa thinks he’s just given the fallen prince what he earned and it still isn’t enough. Erik never should have been subjected to the life he had- _no one_ should be subjected to that.

Shuri laughs, “did you see their faces when they all thought I was going to challenge my brother? Classic,” she says gleefully.

“Did you miss the entire part of that where T’Challa _nearly went over a cliff_?” Tony asks, eyes wide.

“I was fine,” T’Challa tells him even though he had had to cling particularly tight to M’Baku to not go over the edge. It worked out for him anyways, M’Baku eventually stood down.

“That makes one of us,” Tony mumbles, hand pressed to his chest. “I think I had a minor heart attack.”

“I should make a meme out of the look on your face,” Shuri tells him. “You looked so distraught.”

He doesn’t look less distraught now, or at least T’Challa imagines he doesn’t given how worried he still obviously is. “Don’t be rude, Shuri,” T’Challa tells her.

“Its not rude to make a meme,” Shuri says. “America has a lot of them but they’re very disturbing. Its like they think making jokes about their terrible conditions will make it better.”

“Black humor,” Tony provides. “It does actually help. If you make a joke about T’Challa nearly dying I’m sorry Shuri but I’ll have to throw _you_ off that cliff,” Tony tells her when he sees the light bulb go off in her head. T’Challa shakes his head at the two of them. He will never understand their bond but he’s happy they have one nonetheless.

 _Deleted Scenes_ :

T’Challa frowns when he reads the American headline. “The distraction Rhodey caused when we went to collect Klaw was… setting off the zombie alert in Texas? Why does America have a zombie alert?” T’Challa asks.

Tony is too busy pissing himself laughing to know because that’s too fucking funny. “Once,” Tony wheezes out, “I needed Rhodey to distract people so I could hack SHIELD for all they’re worth so he made… made up this fucking _thing_ ,” he squeezes out. “And people still say they’ve seen the fucking thing in Arkansas.” T’Challa looks confused so Tony pulls up the stories from nearly twelve years ago now, perching himself in T’Challa’s lap as he reads the articles. Tony is too busy laughing to notice T’Challa’s reactions.

“Americans seriously believed Arkansas was being tormented by some kind of made up cryptid they thought the American _government_ was behind?” T’Challa asks, looking downright baffled. Tony stops his laughing because after hearing T’Challa pronounce ‘Arkansas’ he’s baffled too.

“Say the name of that state again,” Tony says and T’Challa frowns.

“Arkansas,” he says, pronouncing it ‘our-Kansas’.

“Honey… its pronounced ‘ar-can-saw’ not ‘our-Kansas’,” he says.

T’Challa gives him an unimpressed look, tossing the tablet he had been holding onto the table. “Your country is stupid, the words do not make sense, and I can’t believe your population is so naïve they believed a stupid story made up by a colonel with a wild imagination,” he says.

Tony bursts out laughing again. “Its pronounced ‘kernel’, not whatever the hell you just said,” he tells T’Challa, who sticks his nose in the air.

“Off my lap.”

*

“Tony,” Shuri says, walking up to him looking determined. “I need to you do some brotherly duties and give me some sex advice,” she says and Tony makes a face.

“Since _when_ is that a brotherly duty?” he asks, wrinkling his nose hard.

Shuri sighs, “you’re right, I went to you specifically because you are not T’Challa, I was just trying to trap you in the conversation with social convention and is came out… not good. So ignore that I need advice,” she says.

“From _me_?” Tony asks. He can feel the disgust lingering on his face.

“Well who else am I supposed to go to?” she asks.

“I don’t know, a therapist?” Tony asks more than states.

Shuri rolls her eyes, “who goes to a therapist for sex advice?” she asks and Tony doesn’t tell her that there’s an entire industry in America centered around sex therapy alone. That doesn’t seem like a good thing to mention here.

“Me after this conversation probably. Except instead of sex advice it’ll be how to forget that my surrogate sister asked me for sex advice. Talk to your mother,” Tony tells her.

Shuri frowns, “would you ask your mother for sex advice?” she asks.

Tony rolls his eyes, “these days the only thing I’d ask my mother for is a kind request to get the fuck away from me,” he says.

“Yeah, yeah you have mommy issues. And daddy issues. And only child issues. You’re messed up, can we get back to the sex advice?” she asks.

“No, I am not giving you advice. Do what American kids do and go play around on the internet until you figure out you have some weird ass kink you didn’t expect and then develop a deep seated fear of your own sexuality that results in you living in a hypersexual and also prudish culture at the same time. And leave me out of it,” Tony tells her.

Shuri shakes her head, “you’re right. America has problems and I pity T’Challa for having to work through all your issues. I’ll ask Okoye,” she says and Tony lets out a sigh of relief.

“Finally,” he mumbles.

*

T’Challa and Okoye sit glued to the television screen and Tony sighs, exchanging a pained look with Nakia. When Tony had introduced American media to Wakanda their limited exposure had obviously gone up considerably, but the country had rightfully dismissed most of reality television as trash, and they had no interest in soap operas. Imagine everyone’s surprise when the damn _king_ and the _general_ , the two most no-nonsense and two of the most intelligent people in the country ended up borderline addicted to both of those trash forms of media.

“Tony stop looking at Nakia like that, it’s a good show,” T’Challa says. “Kind of reminds me of how we met,” he adds and Tony lets out a long, drawn out sigh.

“You’re right. You’re fucking right, we could have been on this goddamn reality TV show and I want to die. Nakia, you know that bar with those cocktails? Lets go get wasted so we can forget that apparently my life is a reality television show about being married at first sight,” he says.

Nakia gives him a sympathetic pat on the arm, “I had that thought as soon as T’Challa introduced me to the concept of the show but I didn’t want to say anything,” she says.

“I’m going to need shots of some really strong alcohol to forget this,” Tony mumbles.

The show flips to a new couple and Okoye throws popcorn at the screen, “that man is a piece of shit, she deserved better,” she says and Tony is sure that’s right.

“I hope she ends up getting a divorce,” T’Challa adds, earning an approving nod from Okoye. Culture shock had been a thing when they were introduced to reality TV but mostly in regards to relationships. T’Challa had quickly learned why Tony had been so suspicious in the beginning of their relationship and he and Okoye spend most of their time offended at the assumptions people make about omegas, betas, and on one occasion alphas. T’Challa and Okoye had both been rather offended to learn that in America they were easily written off as vicious sex beasts due to their hormonal nature and both found the notion of lacking control because of their biology offensive at best. It had been amusing to watch until they decided not to give up reality TV after that.

“Telling them about these shows was a bad idea,” Nakia mumbles. “You should have stuck to Die Hard.” T’Challa hates the movie and Tony is well and truly offended by that. Die Hard is a _classic_.

“Next time I think exposing them to something American is a good idea remind me of this,” he tells her. She nods gravely in agreement.

“Next time expose them to sushi,” she advises.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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